By Nathan Kelly

Picture this. You’re a fan of a basketball team that reached the NBA Finals last season and have one of the most promising young stars in all of sports. Not even a full season later, your best player for the remainder of the season is a 35-year-old Klay Thompson and the health of your other star, Kyrie Irving, is in jeopardy. This is the sad reality for fans of the Dallas Mavericks.

Irving has just been put out of commission for the rest of the season due to an ACL tear in the Mavs’ most recent game against the Sacramento Kings. But let’s start from the root of the problem in Dallas.

The Mavericks had one of the most promising futures in basketball. Luka Doncic, who has just turned 26, has been one of the best offensive players in the league for the past few years. He is only just approaching his prime and is set to be the future of the franchise.

So, when general manager Nico Harrison decided to ship him off to the LA Lakers, fans were baffled and outraged. And rightfully so.

In return for Doncic, the Mavericks received 31-year-old Anthony Davis, promising shooting guard Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick. For a 25-year-old who is one of the best in the world and will only get better, this simply isn’t enough.

Anthony Davis, when healthy, is one of the best big men in the NBA, averaging 24.7 points and 12 rebounds per game this season. That’s the issue though, his health. He is known to be injury prone, and this was further proven in his debut game for Dallas.

He hobbled off the court before the 4th quarter in his debut game for the Mavs, said to be out for multiple weeks with a left abductor strain.

This combined with Kyrie’s recent injury leaves the remainder of the Mavs’ season looking bleak.

Since Doncic got traded, Irving has averaged a staggering 39.3 minutes played per game, the most in the NBA in this timespan by a good margin. So, the injury shouldn’t come as a surprise, it should have been expected.

The lack of Doncic’s offensive presence is felt in the team’s results. Pre-trade, the Mavs had a record of 19-21 without Doncic on the court: Whereas they had a winning record of 13-9 with him on the court. Since trading Doncic, the Mavs have gone 6-6. So, his impact on the team is clear by the results alone.

Nico Harrison’s main reasons for trading away Doncic were due to Davis’ defensive ability and Doncic’s poor conditioning off the court. However, both concerns can easily be proven ineffective.

Doncic may not be the most defensively present, but he still led this Mavericks team to the NBA Finals last year.

And as for his health off the court, Harrison stated his smoking and drinking habits as “major character concerns” and that his poor conditioning would lead to future injuries.

However, in this poor conditioning, Luka still not only averaged 33.9 PPG, 9.2 RPG and 9.8 APG last season. But he also had the most efficient 70+ point game ever, operating on splits of 75.8% from field and 91.2% true shooting.

So, where do the Mavericks go from here? If you want my brutally honest answer, I don’t know. Maybe they could enter another era of rebuilding, but if they were going to, they surely should have done it with one of the best young stars in basketball. And with the current state of their roster, it seems their championship window is closing real soon.

I would say it couldn’t be worse for Mavs fans, but at least they aren’t a fan of Chicago sports.

Drastic Downfall in Dallas