It is funny how quickly things can change.
Just over a year ago, the Mavericks were being investigated by the NBA after intentionally tanking to miss the NBA playoffs.
The 115-112 loss to Chicago guaranteed Dallas had no hope of appearing in the play-in tournament, where it could have tried to go on an unlikely run to the NBA Finals.
Instead, despite making a move for superstar guard Kyrie Irving at the trade deadline, the Mavericks made a clear concession that the team — as constructed in that moment — was not good enough to win a title.
So, Dallas lost. But in reality, the Mavericks won in a big way.
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By throwing away the game against the Bulls, Dallas improved its chances of keeping its first-round pick in that year’s draft.
Quickly for context, in case you have forgotten by now, the Mavericks still owed a first-round pick to the New York Knicks as part of the trade for Kristaps Porzingis in 2019 at that point.
But if the draft lottery handed them a top-10 selection, they wouldn’t have to give it up. A lower finish in the overall standings, of course, gave them better odds of drawing a top-10 pick.
The Mavericks were fined $750,000 after that league investigation was completed but it mattered little as they drew the No.10 pick, later trading back on draft day to select rookie big man Dereck Lively II at 12th overall.
The same Lively II who has been a rookie revelation this season, exceeding everyone’s expectations — including his own — and developing an immediate connection with Luka Doncic.
The same Luka Doncic who, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, had “publicly and privately expressed extreme frustration” during the 2022-23 season.
Team sources told ESPN at the time a “fear” existed that Doncic “could consider requesting a trade as soon as the summer of 2024 if Dallas doesn’t make significant progress by then”.
Again, it is funny how quickly things can change.
Now Dallas is just four games away from lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Doncic, meanwhile, is on the verge of joining the likes of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo as recent NBA champions who could have so easily become the latest superstars to force their way out as part of the league’s player empowerment era.
Instead they stayed patient. Instead, they trusted their front offices to do right by them.
Now both have rings to show for it. Soon, Doncic could too.
“He’d like to be here the whole time,” Mavericks co-owner Cuban told ESPN at the time.
“But we’ve got to earn that.”
Dallas did just that at this year’s trade deadline, making a pair of strategic moves to build around Doncic, having already put the perfect co-star next to him in Irving.
But not everyone believed Irving was the ideal fit, with one ESPN writer giving the trade a ‘D’ grade — and Irving hasn’t forgotten it.
There has been plenty written about the eight-time All-Star over the years and with time, Irving has found his own way of dealing with that reality.
“All the stories and narratives are going to exist forever,” he told reporters after Dallas clinched its NBA Finals berth.
“I’m sure I’ll hear it until I retire. But again, this is what comes with this industry.”
It doesn’t mean Irving isn’t allowed to have a little bit of fun with it though. He has a folder in his phone, exclusively for memes — and there is one that is particularly satisfying to look back at.
“ESPN gave us a grade D for the trade of me coming here,” Irving said after a 109-95 win over Atlanta, which secured Dallas’ spot in the playoffs.
“I think us clinching a playoff spot and putting ourselves in a great position definitely answers some of those questions that were asked last season by some of the naysayers and all of that stuff.”
Some of the naysayers pointed to on-court concerns, questioning whether Irving and Doncic would be just the latest example of two ball-dominant superstars failing to co-exist.
Most, however, were more worried by the off-court distractions, cautious to completely buy into the idea of an Irving and Doncic backcourt given the way things ended in Boston and Brooklyn.
And there was a chance things could end even more abruptly in Dallas given Irving was a chance of becoming an unrestricted free agent after just a few months with the Mavericks.
In other words, Dallas were gambling on giving up Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and an unprotected 2029 first-round pick for a short-term rental.
“This is a pretty high risk move for Dallas,” Trey Kerby said on the ‘No Dunks’ podcast for The Athletic at the time.
“The Mavs could either have four seasons of the best backcourt in the league. Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. Are you kidding? That’s incredible.
“Or they could have six months of that, flame out in the playoffs and then Kyrie goes to the Lakers.
“Or they could completely alienate their star who is supposed to be the saviour of the franchise after Dirk Nowitzki left by bringing in a combustible second star who may not totally want to be there long-term, leaving Luka even more barren and alone in Dallas.
“All three of those are really on the table here for Dallas.”
Fortunately for Dallas, it ended up being the first option as Irving re-signed on a three-year, $126 million deal and formed what Stan Van Gundy described as “arguably the best offensive backcourt in the history of the NBA”.
Irving has been the perfect sidekick, if that is even the right word for what he has been doing these playoffs, averaging 22.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.2 assists while shooting 42.1 per cent from deep.
He has been playing the best postseason defence in his career too and that has been bringing the best out of Doncic, who has also been much-improved on that side of the floor.
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“Those two worked at it,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said.
“It just didn’t happen overnight. That’s a beautiful thing. It’s alright to be wrong. We’re not always right. But it’s a beautiful combination.
“Those two play off each other. You can see that they care about one another. They’re in competition with each other on who’s playing the best defence and that’s kind of cool to see because when you used to look at Kai and Luka, a lot of times we’re not known for our defensive guys but they’re competing.”
More than anything though, even if it is a simplistic way of looking at it, the most important thing is that, finally, Irving is just playing basketball.
And that hasn’t always been a guarantee with Irving, who was both a walking human highlight reel on the court and walking human headline off it during his time at Brooklyn.
In his final season, it was the refusal to get vaccinated for Covid-19, which saw him miss two-thirds of the season, and the promotion of a video that shared anti-Semitic views.
Even on the court Irving wasn’t a stranger to drama, stomping on the Celtics logo in his second game back at TD Garden and flipping off fans who yelled explicit chants at him.
“Kyrie Irving has been great. He came to Dallas and there’s no drama there. We haven’t heard anything out of him,” Dan Patrick said this week on his show.
“And that’s good, because we do just want to see him play basketball. The other stuff, the off-the-court stuff, if he revisits that when he’s done, great.
“I like to see a player who has that much talent to be back on the big stage again, and he’s been through an awful lot. But at 32, all the sudden you look around and go ‘this isn’t going to last much longer, how do I want to be remembered?’
“Does he care about how he wants to be remembered? But when he does play, when he wants to play, he’s remarkable. Was Dallas desperate? Maybe.
“But Mark Cuban was not afraid to take a chance. Kyrie had to respect Luka, had to respect Jason Kidd. He had to be willing to be a great team player and realise that you’re not going to be the guy.
“He had to be a bit submissive to Luka, because it’s Luka’s team. And Kyrie has done a wonderful job.”
A frank Irving admitted he “wasn’t my best self” during his time at Boston, but equally told reporters this week there could have been “a little bit more grace extended my way”.
“Especially with what I was dealing with during that time as a human being,” he added.
It also seems like Irving has come to terms with the fact that no matter what he does and no matter what he says, people are always going to have opinions on him — another sign of the 32-year-old’s growth since his Boston days.
“When you’re in a professional environment such as this and you can only be judged by your on-court performances and what people say off the court, and they don’t know who you are, I think that’s a little unfair,” Irving said.
“But that’s the life we live in and life is just not fair all the time. I just stopped being a kid towards this industry and just grew up and grew wings. I just developed a mentality to be able to brush off a lot of that stuff.”
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Of course, as much as Irving has obviously helped lift the ceiling of this team, any discussion on Dallas’ charge to the NBA Finals has to involve the moves it made around the margins.
Starting with the trade deadline acquisitions of Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington, who bolstered the Mavericks’ frontcourt after an underwhelming start to the season.
It can be easy to forget that Dallas had a 29-23 record before the deadline, ranking just 22nd in defensive rating, 12th in offence and 17th in net rating.
A lot of that came back to Irving and Doncic not being healthy, missing 22 and eight games respectively.
But either way, provided the superstar duo were on the court when it mattered most, it was still clear that the Mavericks needed more — especially on the defensive end.
Adding Washington gave Dallas a disruptive defender and extra scoring option, with the former Hornet coming up clutch in the playoffs with a number of big-time shots in big-time moments.
Gafford, meanwhile, eased the pressure on rookie Lively II to perform right away while his effective rim protection proved particularly important against the Minnesota frontcourt.
Beyond Gafford and Washington, Derrick Jones Jr. has proven a shrewd free agency pick-up after Dallas signed him to a veteran’s minimum one-year deal in the summer.
Even coach Kidd, meanwhile, deserves plenty of credit after being questioned for his rotations in the regular season before finding a formula that helped Dallas to a 22-9 record after the trade deadline and, now, an NBA finals appearance.
Of course, it goes without saying that the Mavericks wouldn’t be in this position without Doncic, who ranks first for points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goals, 3-pointers and free throws this playoffs.
DOMINANT DONCIC (Playoffs)
Points: 489 (1st)
Rebounds: 164 (1st)
Assists: 150 (1st)
Steals: 28 (1st)
FG: 166 (1st)
3-pt FG: 57 (1st)
FT: 100 (1st)
But everyone already knew Doncic was good. He was never the one holding this team back. In fact, the conversation was always about how the Mavericks were holding him back.
Now, nothing is holding Doncic and Dallas back from winning the team’s first championship in 13 years and like reigning champions Denver, there is something to be said about the way the Mavericks patiently waited, knowing with the right pieces, they could reach this point.
It took a bit of time for the Doncic-Irving backcourt combination to flourish too but now, as Gafford put it after Dallas’ series-sealing win over Minnesota, we are witnessing “greatness”.
“In all honesty, I’d say it’s the patience when it comes to just being around each other,” Gafford said.
“When I was first seeing the trade when Kyrie got here, they said, ‘Oh, him and Luka is not going to work’. They’re working pretty good together right now, if I do say so myself.
“So whoever said that, they obviously need to go get their eyes checked. Just watching it, to me, it’s just greatness.”
