Season Record:  58-24

Season Highlight:  The surge they made from February on to secure the #2 seed in the West.  They only had 10 losses over that entire span and they finished strong by winning their last 8 games to break away from 3^rd place San Antonio.

Season Lowlight:  The injuries they sustained in the playoffs left the Mavs completely toothless.  After beating the Suns in the 1^st round, they had no chance to escape from round 2 after losing multiple key players to injury.  GM Smokey had to be wondering what could have been if all their players had stayed healthy.

Best Trade:  The Dallas Mavericks send Gordon Hayward and Cam Reddish to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Minnesota Timberwolves send Justin Holiday, C.J. McCollum and Noah Vonleh to the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks send a 2nd-Rounder (Mia), 2nd-Rounder (Sac) and 2nd-Rounder (Bkn) to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Dallas Mavericks receive 15 GM points. The Minnesota Timberwolves trade -15 GM points.

CJ McCollum is the best player in this deal, and he continues to be a scoring machine in the NLL.  In addition to gaining CJ, the Mavs were able to move away from Hayward, who just signed a bloated contract and would have eaten a lot of cap space without delivering as much as CJ does.  Plus, didn’t Gordon get hurt again?

Worst Trade: The Boston Celtics send Will Barton to the Dallas Mavericks. The Boston Celtics send Joe Ingles to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Dallas Mavericks send Serge Ibaka to the Boston Celtics.
The Dallas Mavericks send a 2nd-Rounder (Bos) to the Boston Celtics. The Oklahoma City Thunder send a 2nd-Rounder (Mia) to the Boston Celtics. The Oklahoma City Thunder send a 1st-Rounder (OKC) to the Dallas Mavericks. The Oklahoma City Thunder use their trade exception over $ 11,954,546. The Boston Celtics receive 20 GM points. The Dallas Mavericks trade -5 GM points. The Oklahoma City Thunder trade -15 GM points.

Ibaka continues to be a force, but Barton just never seems to be as impactful in the NLL.  He is consistently an underperformer compared to the stats he puts up in the NBA.  In addition, the Mavs also received a 1^st, albeit a very late one, since it is an OKC pick for 2022, so the jury is out on this part of the deal.  If the pick is great, it would no longer be the worst trade.

Other Notable Trades:

I want to mention that the Mavs have made 2 trades already this year, but I won’t be including them, as they are part of the 20-21 season.

The Dallas Mavericks send Eric Gordon to the Sacramento Kings. The Sacramento Kings send Thaddeus Young to the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks send a 2nd-Rounder (Bkn) and 2nd-Rounder (Dal) to the Sacramento Kings.

Gordon is an oft injured player, but Young is a great player for flexibility as he can play SF or PF and the Mavs were short of depth in those positions.

The Dallas Mavericks send Julius Randle to the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks send Eric Bledsoe to the Dallas Mavericks. The New York Knicks send a 2nd-Rounder (Mia) and 2nd-Rounder (Sac) to the Dallas Mavericks.

Was this fear of losing Randle in FA? Bledsoe ended up being a much better player than expected.  Moves like this made it look like the Mavs were trying to be a better defensive team, as Randle is more of a sieve.

The Dallas Mavericks send Rajon Rondo to the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls send a 2nd-Rounder (Mia) to the Dallas Mavericks. The Chicago Bulls use their trade exception over $ 2,564,753.

This one would be a trade I think that the Mavs may have wanted to take back if they realized how good Rondo would play last year.  However, they were able to get something for him, vs nothing since he wanted to test FA this year.

The Dallas Mavericks send Xavier Thames to the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls trade -14 GM points.The Dallas Mavericks receive 14 GM points.

Moving dead roster weight for points is always good.

The Brooklyn Nets send Spencer Dinwiddie and Cam Reddish to the Dallas Mavericks. The Brooklyn Nets send Jimmy Butler and DeAndre Bembry to the Phoenix Suns. The Dallas Mavericks send Russell Westbrook to the Brooklyn Nets. The Phoenix Suns send Troy Brown to the Brooklyn Nets. The Phoenix Suns send Gordon Hayward to the Dallas Mavericks. The Brooklyn Nets send a 2nd-Rounder (Bkn) to the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks send a 1st-Rounder (Dal) and 1st-Rounder (OKC) to the Brooklyn Nets. The Phoenix Suns send a 2nd-Rounder (Pho) to the Brooklyn Nets.

This was a good return for moving a star.  2 starters and a recent 1^st round pick for Westbrook.  The only downside was they had to give 2 1sts in the deal.  They were both late picks, but the Mavs got some solid depth.  Hayward was later moved to get CJ McCollum too.

Star:  Nicola Vucevic – This was a tough one, but Nic averaged a double-double and led the team in PER.  This team leaned on Vuc when times got rough and he always seemed to deliver.  CJ gets the honorable mention though.

Goat: Robert Covington – Easily his worst year in the last 4 years.  Even comparing his first 24 games in Cleveland against his last 57 with Dallas, he just underperformed.  It looked more like he sat back and let the stars work.

Free Agents:

Justin Holiday – He’s the only FA on the roster.  He’s an adequate scorer, and won’t be difficult for Dallas to bring back.  Dallas will need to bring some other FA in, but Justin deserves to return for another run.

Draft Grade:  Dallas had no draft picks this year.

Future:  Dallas is in an interesting situation.  Most of their cap is locked up in their big 3; DeRozan, McCollum, and Vucevic.  They are already almost in the lux and need to fill at least 4 roster spots.  They have a few players on their final contract year, but Vuc and CJ are locked up for multiple years.  Do they make a lot of moves and flip their roster once again?  Or do you run it with the stars they currently have?  They have the talent to be a contender in the West, but do they match up against the elite teams in the NLL?  Now seems to be the best time for Dallas to blow up the roster.  Move on from the players they have, and rebuild the team around CJ with a lot of youth.