The Dallas Mavericks' season ended in the Western Conference Finals. Very few onlookers would have thought that they would make it that far. At every turn during the NBA playoffs, Luka Doncic and the Mavs proved the doubters wrong and made it all the way to the conference finals.
The road to get that far will not be easy in any way, though. Mavs head coach Jason Kidd questioned his team about how seriously they want to get back to this point next season. Although he didn't address a particular player, it seems like he was talking about Doncic.
Jason Kidd after Mavs eliminated: “Now, it’s about what’s our appetite come next season? Next season, are we going to be hungry? And then, are we going to train this summer to understand what it means to play until May and June?”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) May 27, 2022
At the beginning of the season, Doncic admitted to being out of shape after a summer that included the Olympics. Now that he has a real taste of success in the NBA playoffs, Kidd is pushing him to not repeat that. Even though Doncic got his conditioning under control, he still had room to improve.
Doncic's lack of ability on defense gave the Mavs' opponents an easy out on offense. He carried a huge burden for the Dallas offense and seemed gas by the end of the team's journey. Although Doncic is far from a bad athlete and had himself an absolutely fantastic stint in the playoffs, he leaves a lot to be desired.
Getting in better shape will be important for the Mavs but they have much more work to do. They have to find a more reliable rotation of bigs and put more scorers around Doncic if they want to improve next season.
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