2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Dallas Mavericks

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May 20, 2026May 20, 2026By Admin
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2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Dallas Mavericks

The ghost of Luka Dončić continues to haunt the Dallas Mavericks, who carry the consolation prize of Cooper Flagg.

Though the NBA Playoffs are in full swing, the buzzer has sounded for several other teams on the Association’s ledger. 

Cooper Flagg Luka Doncic Lakers Mavericks
(Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

As it stands, 14 teams were forced to focus on a different kind of ball during the hardwood holidays, as ping-pong balls decided their respective fates at the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery. This year’s draft class is stocked with prime talents that will hopefully lead these teams out of the mire, but it’s worth analyzing how they got into these situations in the first place.

With that in mind, Ballislife looks back on the voyages of the damned, going in order of top lottery odds. Part eight centers on the Dallas Mavericks …

Team: Dallas Mavericks
Record: 26-56
Last Playoff Appearance: 2024
Where They’ll Pick: 9th

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What Went Wrong

The Mavericks captured the Flagg but continued to be bewitched by Dončić.

February 1 or 2, 2025—depending on your time zone—continues to be a day that lives in North Texas infamy. Even with minimal safe distance, the Mavericks remained sickened by the fallout of the infamous Luka Dončić trade with the Los Angeles Lakers, essentially relegated to a gap year despite their fortunate bounce ahead at last spring’s draft lottery. Kyrie Irving‘s season-long absence due to continued ACL recovery certainly didn’t help matters and only made Jalen Brunson‘s continued metropolitan breakout all the more overbearing.

That leap ahead at least produced future Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, but the prized Duke diaper dandy could only do so much to redirect the deluge of brutality that has besieged the Mavericks since their 2024 NBA Finals appearance, which already feels like an eternity ago.

Brutal bookends awaited despite Flagg’s regularly-scheduled breakout: Dallas began the year with a 6-15 mark and won just seven games over the final three months of the tour. All that and more wasn’t even enough to appease the lottery demons, as the Mavericks fell one spot to ninth on the 2026 draft board. It also wasn’t enough to extend Jason Kidd’s lengthy Texas tenure, as the recurring Maverick mutually agreed to part ways with the team less than a year after coming to terms on an extension.

One would think the Dončić deal at least had an expiration date for the hardwood comedians, as the Mavericks’ partners in elimination provided plenty of punchlines with their seemingly intentional losing. Alas, it proved to be the gift that kept on giving for such jesters.

Perhaps desperate for a sideshow from a tepid on-court performance, the Mavericks spent a good bit of their season shedding the yields from the fateful transaction: the crown jewel, Anthony Davis, endured yet another injury and was dealt to Washington shortly after the trade’s one-year anniversary. Unfortunately, fulfilling every concern that critics of the trade had about his health, Davis played only 29 games in Dallas, including but a single showing with Irving.

The departure of Davis came about three months after the trade’s mastermind, Nico Harrison, was relieved of front-office duties, fulfilling one of the most common fan requests at American Airlines Center amidst the brutal start. Quizzical enough due to the relative fanfare of Davis’ arrival, the trade also puts Dallas’ post-heavy future up for debate: the Mavericks got only seven games out of Dereck Lively this season and re-upped with Daniel Gafford on an eight-figure extension last summer.

In any other conventional set-up, the Davis deal would’ve been the explosive opening act to a busy trade deadline. Instead, the Mavericks stood mostly pat after that, opting to keep veterans like Klay Thompson and Caleb Martin, both of whom seem ripe for the facetious “Dallas legend” game that pops up on social media from time to time (likely joining Davis, Peja Stojoakovic, Amar’e Stoudemire, and more on such a cursed all-star team).

Top Silver Lining

Have we not been clear?

It didn’t take long for Flagg to vindicate the massive hype surrounding him, needing just 26 showings to put up a 40-point game. Flagg ended the year leading all rookie participants in scoring at 21 a game while also appearing in the top 10 in assists and rebounds in the same criteria. All that and more perhaps made Flagg a shoo-in for the Rookie of the Year title despite some surprisingly spirited runs from VJ Edgecomb and Kon Knueppel.

If one’s looking for the other fleeting positives in the current state of the Mavericks, it’s safe to say that the kids are all right: Flagg trailed only teammate Ryan Nembhard in the assists per game category among first years, putting up strong franchise freshmen tallies that rivaled those of his former head coach Kidd. 

Looking Ahead

Despite attempting to lay relatively low in the post-Dončić era, the spotlight looms large on the Mavericks thanks to recent activity … or lack thereof. Trading Davis at least gets next season’s guaranteed $58.4 million (as well as even pricier player option for the year after) off the books, but several other major decisions loom.

At the forefront of those conundrums is Irving, who just signed a $118 million extension last summer. Now is the time to decide whether to press forward with the original plan of forming a duology with Flagg or to let the 34-year-old coming off ACL surgery chase another title elsewhere.

Splurging on free agency or going back to the trade block could help atone for active shortcomings on the draft board. While they own No. 9 this time around, the Mavericks don’t outright own their regularly-scheduled first-round pick until 2031. Next year’s first-rounder, for example, is moving to Charlotte thanks to the Washington deal, and defending champion Oklahoma City has the right to swap 2028 first-rounders. That makes it all the more perplexing that they held onto veterans like Gafford and Thompson after the deadline, but what’s done is done.

Also up for an extension is the current rookie-scale man, Lively, who has been impressive in the interior … when he plays. The yield of a 2023 shutdown to prevent his eventual pick from transferring to the Knicks, Lively has yet to play more than 55 games in a season and has been on the floor for only 43 in the last two tours. It shouldn’t be hard to retain restricted free agent Moussa Cisse, another undrafted rookie who impressed in limited opportunities as a two-way man. Other free agents include the tenured Dwight Powell and Davis trade yields Marvin Bagley and Khris Middleton.

The good news is that a vital reinforcement has been brought in to oversee the cleanup: under the cover of playoff night, the Mavericks hired Masai Ujiri as team president (while firing Kidd after five seasons). It has obviously been a while since Ujiri won the 2013 Executive of the Year title with the Denver Nuggets, but his best work came north of the border when he built an unexpected champion with the Toronto Raptors.

Is There Hope?

As long as Flagg is around, it’s hard to say no. But the Mavericks nonetheless occupy rare if not unenviable territory.

Whereas most teams often have to decide between a rebuild or lingering at the cusp of contention, the Mavs are afforded no such luxury. Less than two years removed from a conference title, Dallas has quietly, if not unwillingly, tipped off another 730-day countdown leading into Flagg’s first extension.

If they’re not at least somewhat close to a Finals return trip, the sole silver lining from this quest from the basketball netherworld could be behooved to escape. That makes it fair to assume that they’ll look into extension on presumed building blocks like Lively and Max Christie, yields of a rollercoaster stretch of North Texas basketball that leaves the most bittersweet of legacies. Moving on from Kidd, however, suggests that they might be willing to embrace a rebuild, though anything involving Flagg might be better classified as a high-risk, high-reward retool

Each of these moves, of course, assumes risks, and all of it could’ve been avoided with a simple hang-up on that fateful February night. But it’s all in the name of making sure the Mavs do the most with the most assured certainty in the form of Flagg.

Prior Previews

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags

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