Mavs BREAKING: Luka Doncic Pal Goran Dragic Signing with Bulls

The Mavs' Dragic attraction is among the NBA’s worst-kept secrets.

DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks are once again on the outside looking in when it comes to Goran Dragic.

The Mavs are making roster changes after their Western Conference Finals appearance, as they agreed to a trade that would land Christian Wood, signed another center in JaVale McGee, and watched as Jalen Brunson moved to the New York Knicks.

And all along - as has been the case for a long time - the Mavericks moving on the signing of Goran Dragic was supposed to happen as well.

And it has. Except he's signing with the Chicago Bulls.

In Dallas, of course, the Dragic attraction is among the NBA’s worst-kept secrets. Dragic, 36, spent most of the 2021-22 season being away from NBA basketball. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors in part of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade and only appeared in five games before both sides decided it was mutually beneficial for him to not play.

The Mavericks were linked to Dragic often in rumors leading up to his buyout, but the addition of Dinwiddie in the Kristaps Porzinigis trade changed their plans. There were already 15 guaranteed roster spots at the time — making it challenging to open up space.

“We knew that Goran would be a potential buyout candidate, and there’s other names out there too, but we’ve done our homework," Mavericks GM Nico Harrison said recently. "We think we know who all is going to get bought out. But at the end of the day, we have 15 roster spots already filled, and for us to bring someone in, whoever that person could be, we’d have to release somebody, and I don’t think we want to do that. I think we like our roster how it is, and there’s no one that I would feel comfortable releasing at this point to add room for somebody else.”

And now it seems "roster spots'' are in play here again in Dallas - even though conventional wisdom suggests that the Mavs, given Dragic's relationship with fellow countryman Luka Doncic, might have acquired Dragic now and worried about the "how's'' later.