{"id":786791,"date":"2026-07-07T20:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786791\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:13","slug":"the-mavericks-measured-offseason-is-a-sign-of-things-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786791\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mavericks’ Measured Offseason Is a Sign of Things To Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the better part of two decades, Mavericks fans eyed the first week of July with anticipation tinged with terror. It carried special significance in their tribe: a tradition, a cycle, a signal from the Gods, akin to Punxsutawney Phil or his lesser-known Texan cousin, Big Al<\/a>. Because, with varying levels of wisdom and commitment, the Mavericks were a team that put all of their eggs in one basket. The \u201cbig fish.\u201d The \u201cdry powder.\u201d Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson wanted a star to pair with Dirk Nowitzki, then one to replace him as he aged, and eventually there became a book\u2019s worth of stories<\/a> of the Mavericks getting shunned by big-name free agents.<\/p>\n

But whatever existed of the Mavericks\u2019 previous identity<\/a> has been shattered, or put less cynically, wiped clean. New ownership. New management team. New coaching staff. New franchise cornerstone. Masai Ujiri and Company have the freshest of fresh starts.<\/p>\n

Given the club\u2019s roster and portfolio of assets, along with the dynamics of the stacked Western Conference, allowing the realizations of gains to occur later rather than immediately should be the modus operandi. Development, development, development<\/a>. There\u2019s no sense in the Mavericks trying to land meetings with aging stars or getting involved in blockbuster trade rumors. They\u2019re not nearly close enough to a title to justify that.<\/p>\n

But it is one thing to understand that in a vacuum and another to act with that in mind. Recall that the previous regime pulled the trigger on the Kristaps Porzingis trade just a year and a half into Luka Doncic being on the roster. Porzingis was not an old player, and there was defensible logic for the move. However, it indicated a philosophical approach that in many ways became the hallmark of the old guard. They knew so little about Doncic at that point, and the gravity of the decision was not matched by the amount of data needed to execute it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was reported that, at least later in his tenure, Donnie Nelson was on a perpetual one-year deal<\/a> with Cuban as general manager. When the vibes were good and the Mavericks were winning a lot of games, I thought it was kind of quaint and cool, even if they weren\u2019t landing big free agents. They just trust each other that much! Given that Nelson and Cuban\u2019s relationship ended in a lawsuit<\/a> involving a dispute over a long-term contract offer, my previous read feels foolish. What feels more foolish, though, is not seeing how that would clearly impact the way a manager would operate. The Mavericks of before thought they could try a \u201cJust add water!\u201d solution to all of their problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know the details of Ujiri\u2019s contract, but he might be the safest man in the NBA right now. He could likely do anything he wants\u2014short of trading Cooper Flagg, although who knows given recent history given\u2014and no amount of criticism will penetrate his shields. The timeline will be as long as he says it is. The approach he used with the Raptors was methodical and calculated, and even though Flagg is already in place, I wouldn\u2019t expect Ujiri to move any differently in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just like with the relatively surprising selection of Morez Johnson Jr., the players Dallas is expected to add this week interest me for what they do as much as who they are. Santi Aldama, a 25-year-old stretch big who spent his first five years in Memphis, will play a lot in Dallas. Marcus Sasser, an undersized combo guard who comes to Dallas after spending his first three seasons in Detroit, likely will not. There are also Turkish sharpshooter Tarik Biberovic and Spanish dynamo Sergio De Larrea. Like his predecessors, Ujiri is known for his work in international scouting, but it\u2019s impossible to count on too much from the imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aldama is very intriguing<\/a>. Dusty May has said he wants his Mavericks<\/a> to play with a top-five pace, which makes sense to anyone who has watched Flagg play basketball. Aldama comes over from a Grizzlies team that finished seventh in pace, with the fifth-highest share of their buckets coming in transition. Aldama is excellent in the open floor for a big. He runs hard, makes good reads, and shoots it well. And he can do all of these things without getting in Flagg\u2019s way. There is no point in trying to make sense of whatever the Mavericks roster was last season, but Flagg can\u2019t be out there with two bigs who don\u2019t shoot. For the rest of his career, apart from fringe tactical situations, he should ideally be on the floor with at least one (1) person taller than he is and who shoots it better.<\/p>\n

Aldama won\u2019t create traffic jams in the lane, and he\u2019s effective in the spaces Flagg creates. By all accounts, he knows what to do with the ball. This is something May has spoken about with Johnson Jr., a non-shooting big whom he used as an offensive hub at Michigan and called his \u201cconnector.\u201d I\u2019m hesitant to get too excited about how this will look because it feels a little too college coach-ish to come in and say \u201cWe\u2019re going to run more than everyone else, and we\u2019re going to pass more than everyone else, and\u2026 !\u201d However, that is how it seems a team built around Flagg should play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is obviously a positional logjam; other than Sasser, you could arguably classify every player mentioned in this piece as a power forward, and that\u2019s before considering P.J. Washington. Know that there\u2019s no sense in evaluating what else is here right now and how it fits. When it comes to Washington, Daniel Gafford, Naji Marshall, Klay Thompson, and even Kyrie Irving, I\u2019m inclined to believe the decisions on those players will be as much about resetting the timeline as the players themselves.<\/p>\n

(As for what this roster might look like when the timeline does go more into focus: this might be heresy, but theoretically, Flagg is an easier player to build a championship team around than Doncic or Nowitzki. That\u2019s partly due to his combination of defensive prowess and offensive skill and feel. But he\u2019s also a true wing, and a more versatile player than either of his predecessors as the face of the franchise. Hiding or compensating for a player is toughest at the rim and at the point of attack. Conversely, having strong wing defenders like Flagg are the very thing that allows teams to do that.)<\/p>\n

In a past life, leadership might have witnessed Flagg\u2019s rookie season and immediately thought to mortgage whatever was left of the farm to get back to the Big Boy table. The Mavericks do not move like that any longer. Ujiri told us he would be bringing calm back to the organization, and so, for the time being, the local basketball team will not be supplying the fireworks over the holiday. That\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Author \"Jake<\/p>\n

Jake Kemp covers the Cowboys and Mavericks for StrongSide. He is a lifelong Dallas sports fan who previously worked for Sports Radio 96.7\/1310 The Ticket and currently co-hosts the podcast “The Dumb Zone.” He has cried at least once during every movie about football he’s ever seen and enjoys celebrating life through sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the better part of two decades, Mavericks fans eyed the first week of July with anticipation tinged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-786791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}