Taking a look at what the Dallas Mavericks did right and wrong during the 2018 NBA offseason, including the draft and free agency
It’s been a long time since the last time the Dallas Mavericks won less than 30 games in a single season. In fact, their 24 win total during the 2017-18 NBA season was their lowest win mark in a season since the 1998-1999 season.
That was Dirk Nowitzki’s rookie season. That’s how long it’s been since the Mavs have struggled this much. But, let’s just call it what it is. Dallas is in the midst of a rebuild, and that’s the biggest reason why they only won 24 games last season.
In last year’s draft, they added Dennis Smith Jr., who they believe will be a key cog in this team’s road back to relevancy. Their future is tied in large part to his development. Still, this summer was going to be huge in taking the next step in their rebuild. Here’s a quick recap.
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In this year’s draft, the Mavs took advantage of the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings passing on arguably the best talent in this draft and traded up to take Luka Doncic. They had to give up a future asset, but believed that Doncic, one of the most accomplished prospects in NBA draft history, would be a great second building block.
In free agency, they finally landed their starting center. After missing out on DeAndre Jordan a couple of years ago, they locked him up this summer.
They also made sure to keep Dirk around for another season, signing him to another one-year deal.
Because of some of the other moves made, the team could’ve keep Seth Curry, who did show some promise two seasons ago. Though, with the development of Smith Jr. and Doncic’s hype, Curry was not a player that was high on their priority list this summer.
The Dallas Mavericks are going to be an interesting bunch this season. And even though they might not win a lot of games this year, keep an eye on their young core. It could develop into one of the better 1-2 punches in the entire league.