The playoffs are complicated. Each series is its own story, and each game is its own chapter encompassing a dozen moments and plot points. But the playoffs can also be simple. Each of those moments, those plot points, falls into one of two buckets: the things we observe and the emotions they inspire within us. That’s what we’re here to talk about.
What We Saw
The 2023-24 Mavericks season was a success. I’m not a subscriber to RINGZ culture. General manager Nico Harrison remade this roster on the fly, with shockingly great results.
Rewind one year ago, and most people had declared that the writing was on the wall. Luka Dončić had probably already packed his bags for an impending trade. The team tanked and missed the expanded version of the postseason. We had to watch vibes king Jalen Brunson turn into an All-NBA player in another city. It could not have felt worse.
And then, suddenly, there was life.
The Mavericks won three series this postseason as the wagering underdogs. They just couldn’t make it four. The Celtics are a machine, and they will likely remain a machine for the foreseeable future. The Mavericks led the league in the percentage of their shots that were corner three-point attempts this season, averaging 11 per game. Last night, they took just six and made two. That’s life playing the Boston Celtics several times in a two-week span. A player, a team, a coaching staff, and a front office should not be judged solely on how they perform against the best team in their league.
If there is anything about this series that surprised me, it’s how Kyrie Irving was such a nonfactor, if not an altogether negative. He could not buy a bucket, and I hate to be too speculative here, but it seemed like the Boston crowd and the entire aura of facing his former team affected him. He shot 28 percent from three and averaged less than two free throws per game. He seemed passive, at times timid, and that is not the Kyrie Irving who got this team to where it ended up. Case in point, he only had eight drives last night. For reference, Jayson Tatum had 25, Dončić had 20, and Jaylen Brown had 19. The Mavericks cannot stomach a less-than-assertive performance from Irving against a superior opponent.
So there’s work to be done to get on Boston’s level. The Mavericks aren’t there just yet, and maybe they never will be. But Dončić has gotten better every year of his career, and it’s scary to think about what it looks like for the rest of the NBA should that trend continue. And there’s no reason to think it won’t. Take the great blemish in his offensive game, three-point shooting: this year, he shot the best percentage from three on the highest volume of attempts in his six-year career. Asked, and answered.
The majority of his supporting cast is under contract next season, too. Derrick Jones Jr. is a free agent, and he played well enough this season to earn a deal far exceeding the minimum contract he played on this year. Dereck Lively II has done enough to create belief that he is a star in waiting. (He’s going to take three threes a game next year, watch.) Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington Jr. are contributors on very manageable deals. Maxi Kleber and Tim Hardaway Jr. looked (and were) unplayable at times during this run, but Harrison has shown the ability to maneuver the contours of his roster in such a way that should provide him the benefit of the doubt in shoring up deficiencies.
The Mavericks didn’t have enough to beat the best team in the league. But they had a whole heck of a lot more than they had last season—or in January, for that matter. That resulted in a different brand of basketball and a whole lot of fun. This team isn’t going anywhere. Now it doesn’t look like Dončić is, either. —Jake Kemp
What It Felt Like
It was a hell of a run.
Forget this mule kick of an elimination loss. Disregard three games of utter misery on the East Coast. Banish the disappointment in Luka Dončić’s defense and Kyrie Irving’s shotmaking from your mind. Instead, focus on what this team accomplished and the journey it led this city on.
The 2023-2024 Mavericks entertained, delighted, exhilarated, united. They gave Dallas something to cheer for and to believe in.
But best of all, they surprised. Sports can do that sometimes: subvert our expectations and upend our priors. And heading into the new year, this team was not supposed to make a run of any substance, let alone one that came within three games of an NBA championship. Then a rejiggered roster did just that. In so doing, they reshaped how we see so many of this team’s protagonists. Irving found a home, while Derrick Jones Jr. found relevance. Dereck Lively II is a kid no longer, and P.J. Washington Jr. and Daniel Gafford are losers no more. Jason Kidd silenced his doubters. Nico Harrison proved he’s no Mark Cuban attaché.
As for Dončić, his quest to deliver an NBA championship, like Dirk Nowitzki before him, continues. That goal takes on new urgency after these playoffs because more than any other time in his six years in Dallas, it feels attainable. We can debate another time whether his Mavericks or any other franchise can equip itself to knock off these transcendent Celtics. What’s not in doubt: Dallas’ growth plates are hardly locked the way they were two seasons ago. Most of the current players have further developmental milestones within reach, while Harrison’s front office still has cards to play to keep augmenting this new core of Dončić, Irving, Lively, Washington, and Gafford. This is the start of something, not the end.
And this new beginning is worth celebrating for its own sake. Championships may be the determinant for which teams make it into the history books, but even the shiniest hunks of metal only govern so much about how the right team can make people feel. Reducing these two months to the three wins the Mavericks couldn’t get instead of the 63 they did misses the point of the endeavor. This is about winning, sure, but success is only one stitch in the bond between a sports team and the city it plays for. To dwell too hard on the end result is to cheapen that.
Someday, be it in five years or 15, Luka Dončić will not work here anymore. We will not be able to flick on the television or march into the arena and disengage with the wider, harder world for three hours as the most talented basketball player we’ll see wearing a Dallas jersey does things that shouldn’t be possible. This year, we were treated to more games of that than ever before, as he played alongside a group of teammates who helped make him better than ever. And the ball they played? Far and away more exciting than any we’ve seen from the Mavericks since the Big Three days of Nowitzki, Michael Finley, and Steve Nash.
It’s OK to leave wanting more—Dončić and the Mavericks are, after all. But the missing amount is smaller than it has been in a long, long time. And I’m not just talking about a championship. —Mike Piellucci
Authors
Jake Kemp
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