An NBA summer sneak peek at the Dallas Mavericks in 2024
On February 8, 2023, Kyrie Irving’s debut game was won by the Mavericks, who were sitting in fourth place in the Western Conference with a 30-26 record. But over the course of the next two months, Dallas dropped 18 of 26 games to conclude the 2022–23 campaign, free dropping to 11th place in the rankings and missing out on both the play-in round and the playoffs.
The star backcourt tandem of Irving and Luka Doncic had a poor start to the season and found it difficult to distribute the ball when it counted most of the time (10 of the 18 losses came by five points or less). Crucially, though, after a contentious time in Brooklyn, Irving won praise for his leadership and locker room demeanor in his first few months in Dallas, giving rise to optimism that he and Doncic would work things out on the court with more practice and games together.
Encouraged by improved Doncic and Irving chemistry as well as the addition of rookie center Dereck Lively, whom the Mavericks were able to draft because of their late-season collapse in ’22–23 (their first-round pick was protected in the top ten), the team again had a strong first half in ’23–24 and finished with a 28–23 record on trade deadline day. Dallas again had a busy deadline, adding P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford in different trades.
Although Washington and Gafford didn’t have the same star power that Irving had with the team the previous season, they also didn’t need the same amount of time to transition as Kyrie did in 2023; they fit in Dallas right away. The Mavs surged ahead of their opponents, going on a 22-9 run from deadline day to the regular season conclusion, and climbing from No. 8 to No. 5 in the rankings.
The Mavericks didn’t start the playoffs as the favorites to win the West, but they soon proved that their strong play in the second half was no coincidence. They defeated the No. 4 Clippers in the first round, eliminated the top-seeded Thunder in the second round, and easily defeated the Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, winning three games in Minnesota to win the series 4-1.
Dallas was playing with house money by the time the Mavericks’ incredible run came to an end in the NBA Finals against the powerful Celtics club, who had won 64 games and gone 16-3 in the postseason. Before the season started, if you had told anyone in the organization that the Mavs would make the NBA Finals the following year after a 38-win season, they would have welcomed that conclusion with open arms.
Dallas has bigger expectations moving ahead, and the Mavs will need to find a way to return to the finals and improve their chances of winning it all once they do. This is because they failed to win a title this spring.
Although head of basketball operations Nico Harrison has raised the ceiling of this team and added components that compliment his franchise star (Doncic), there are still certain areas that might be improved. With no cap space available this offseason and a relatively diminished pool of potential lottery picks, the Mavs may have to find other ways to improve.
The Mavericks’ preseason schedule
Harrison told reporters during his end-of-season news conference that he was certain the Mavs’ core didn’t need any significant adjustments. “If you look at our top seven or eight players that really played,” Harrison said. I don’t think that will ever happen.
Doncic, Irving, and Lively are undoubtedly here to stay, and it’s reasonable to believe Washington and Gafford will return having contributed to the team’s transformation following the trade deadline. But after that, the situation becomes more hazy.
Josh Green and Maxi Kleber are the most likely return candidates among the remaining five players.
Before the season began, Green signed a three-year rookie contract extension. Despite health concerns, he had another successful season, making 38.5% of his three-pointers, dishing out a career-high 2.3 assists per game, and playing strong, flexible wing defense.
Despite playing in just 43 games due to injury, Kleber had a very successful season as a frontcourt role player when healthy. The German big man is a versatile defender who can make three-pointers, but he lacks the athleticism of Lively or Gafford.
So far, we have discussed seven out of the eight highest-paid players in Dallas. Tim Hardaway Jr. is the player in that group with the lowest chance of coming back. One of the Mavericks with the longest contract, the veteran wing was acquired from New York in the January 2019 trade for Kristaps Porzingis. However, his 2023–24 average of 26.8 minutes per game was the lowest since he joined Dallas, and his career rate of.353 3PT% was worse. Even when he was healthy, Hardaway was not used much due to an ankle issue he suffered during the playoffs, only averaging 12.7 MPG in 14 postseason games.
Given his waning playing time and approaching expiration of his contract (which is worth roughly $16.2 million), Hardaway is the team’s most obvious trade target. The 32-year-old is nearly guaranteed to be included in any significant deal, whether it’s to provide more cap flexibility or to acquire another impact player.
The Mavs have given up their first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 for Washington and Irving, so they don’t have a lot of marketable draft assets. However, if they make both of their 2025 and 2031 first-round selections unprotected (neither of which can be moved back a year because of the Stepien and seven-year rules), they still have the option to transfer both of those picks. They might also add one or both of Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Jaden Hardy, two young players who will turn 22 in July and have shown promise early in their NBA careers, to sour up a possible trade offer.
Hardaway, one or both of Dallas’s remaining first-round selections, and one or both of those prospects might be included in a package that Dallas uses to try to acquire another elite starter. However, don’t be shocked if the Mavericks try to make a smaller, more affordable trade that makes Hardaway a rotational player.
For example, a trade for wing Cody Martin ($8.1M) with the Hornets would be allowed regardless of whether Charlotte is subject to the cap; Dallas might be able to persuade the Hornets to accept that higher price by offering Hardaway one or more second-round picks in exchange. That is but one illustration. Other clubs might be open to taking a similar approach, particularly given that Hardaway can still contribute respectable rotational minutes.
The idea behind this is that unless the Mavericks reduce their payroll, they most likely won’t be able to re-sign Derrick Jones. Their only alternatives for getting Jones to resign are to give him the full taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.18M) or a Non-Bird raise (20% above his minimum salary), as they plan to operate above the tax line and maybe right around the first tax apron. Either offer might easily be surpassed by rival bidders, who would be anxious to get their hands on the starting small forward and best perimeter defender for the Western champions.
Dallas would be able to use more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, possibly even the entire non-taxpayer mid-level of $12.86M, to make a more competitive bid for Jones, though, if it can make a bit more space below the first apron.
If Dante Exum’s $3.15 million non-guaranteed contract is kept, Dallas already projects to have about $173.7 million counting toward the apron for 12 players. Spending more than $5.18 million of the MLE would hard-cap team salary for 2024–25 at the first apron (about $178.7 million). Consequently, the Mavs would be in a far better position to re-sign Jones if they replaced Hardaway with a player earning half as much money. Moving Hardaway is a “key element,” according to seasoned Dallas-area reporter Marc Stein, in the team’s strategy to retain Jones.
Although the Mavs’ next major trade would lose out on a crucial salary-matching component if Hardaway were to be moved out in what amounts to a money dump, the franchise still possesses a number of mid-sized contracts that might be used in a similar transaction. Washington, Kleber, Green, and Gafford all have multi-season contracts and make between $11 and 16 million annually. If Dallas can free up the non-taxpayer MLE to offer Jones a new contract, then Jones might become a member of that group.
Harrison stated that he wants each of his players to improve by “10 to 15 percent” when questioned about how the Mavs would improve moving ahead. That implies that instead of going out and taking another huge swing this summer, he’s ready to wait and see how the current squad performs for a complete training camp. In the event that the front staff finally decides that’s what’s required to pull Dallas over the finish line, there will be non-Hardaway contracts to utilize in a larger deal later on.
There are five Mavericks left on the offseason to-do list who will be eligible for extensions before the season starts, but Hardaway isn’t a Dallas candidate for a new contract, and there shouldn’t be a rush to extend either Gafford or Kleber, who each have two guaranteed years remaining on their current agreements.
Hardy could be a candidate for an extension, but once more, unless he’s willing to offer the Mavs a team-friendly salary, there probably won’t be much of a rush to get something done quickly. Hardy will be eligible for extensions throughout the season, and if he doesn’t sign one, the team will have a lot of negotiating power when he becomes a restricted free agent in the summer.
That leaves Doncic, who is certain to receive a significant increase in his new maximum wage. But it’s not going to happen this summer. Despite just having six years of NBA experience, the superstar guard made his second consecutive All-NBA team this spring, meeting the performance requirements for a super-max extension (which will start at 35% of the cap instead of 30%). Doncic is theoretically eligible to sign an extension this offseason, but he won’t be able to sign that more expensive super-max contract until July 2025 because a player needs to have seven in order to sign a super-max extension.
Even while the Mavs would prefer to lock up Doncic for a long time as soon as possible, they can be quite certain that in 2025, the 25-year-old will be prepared and eager to sign a contract. Another poor performance in 2023–24 may have made Doncic doubt his capacity to succeed in Dallas after a sub-.500 season in 2022–23. The triumph this year ought to dispel any uncertainties he could have had.
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