Mavs Front Office Must Raise Urgency Level For Luka Doncic

The Mavericks have played mostly mediocre basketball over the last three years. The new front office needs to heighten its urgency level when it comes to getting Luka Doncic more help.

Let me know if you’ve heard this before… but Luka Doncic could really use some more help, and the Dallas Mavericks’ front office doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to try to make that happen.

To be completely clear, it’s not like the Mavs don’t have decent players. It would be a lie to say otherwise. Kristaps Porzingis has shown that he can be a good piece when healthy, but it’s been a hard task to keep him healthy throughout a full season. Tim Hardaway Jr., Jalen Brunson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber are fine role players, but all are still playing in a slot or two above where they would be on a true title contending team.

The Dallas front office, whether it’s been owner Mark Cuban or general manager Nico Harrison, has preached patience this season, insinuating that the product we’re seeing every night isn’t what it appears to be due to injuries or some other excuse, like the new Wilson ball being the reason for the Mavs team-wide three-point shooting woes.

All of that is fine, and it’s even true to a certain extent, but it also feels like a way to squeeze just a little more time out of a roster that should’ve undergone more of a shakeup in the offseason alongside the front office and coaching staff. 

From conversations I’ve had with people close to the situation, I can tell you that the Mavs know that the roster could use some upgrades, but doing that is easier said than done when you only have eyes for top-tier players that might be unrealistic to obtain.

The front office doesn’t believe in making a change just to make a change. They want to make a move that nets them a true secondary star to pair with Luka Doncic. The problem is that no other team in the league is going out of their way to help Dallas accomplish this.

The Mavs’ roster-building goals would be a lot easier had the 2020 NBA Draft gone in a different direction. Dallas could’ve held on to Seth Curry, one of the league’s best three-point shooters, instead of shipping him to Philadelphia for a player and a pick that are no longer part of the organization a year later. The Mavs could’ve picked less raw prospects in Desmond Bane or Tyrese Maxey with the No. 18 overall pick to help not only the quality of the current roster, but also their asset cupboard. And don’t even get me started on the 2019 offseason …

All of those unforced errors were supposedly big reasons why Dallas decided to part ways with Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle. My question is, though, why would the Mavs want to keep nearly the exact same roster that was build by the previous regime if today’s failures are an extension of their past mistakes? Wouldn’t it make sense to try something different? It is possible to improve your team without trading for an All-Star caliber player.

When your team has a record of 137-138 over its last 275 games, excuses start to fall on deaf ears. Even if Doncic had been completely healthy to this point, there’s no guarantee that the Mavs would be much better than they are right now. The team started out 9-4 this season, but that was mainly due to a soft schedule, and even the wins during that stretch felt like a chore.

There is no easy fix for this current version of the Mavs, given trade assets and draft capital they have to work with. Especially if Kristaps Porzingis’ “foot soreness” ends up being a bigger deal than what it’s been initially labeled. That said, though, it wouldn’t hurt for the team to show a little more urgency.

Yes, the Mavs have dealt with injuries, but what team hasn’t this season? It certainly hasn’t deterred teams like the Grizzlies, Clippers and Nuggets, all of whom have had it worse off in the injury department than Dallas has.

Yes, Doncic came into the season out of shape, but if that’s the difference between your team being one game under .500 or maybe three games above .500 nearly 30 games into the season, what is really being accomplished?

Doncic loves the Mavericks organization and the city of Dallas, and surely hasn’t even thought about leaving yet. But a young LeBron James loved the Cavs organization and the city of Cleveland, too, and yet still chose to leave due to his front office not being able to build a more adequate contender around him.

With Doncic having recently signed his five-year super-max contract extension, we’re a ways off from this kind of thing being a legitimate concern, but as we’ve seen before, the moves, or lack there of, that the Mavs make now could have a big ripple effect over the next couple of seasons.

Changes need to be made, and the urgency level needs to be heightened.