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When Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving took the Dallas Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals, it seemed like this team was set to be the league's next contending threat for many years to come. Not even a year later, Nico Harrison and the Mavs face a scenario where their championship window has effectively closed, something nobody could have predicted at the start of the 2024-25 season.
Nightmare is the best word to describe what has happened to the Mavs.
It is incredibly difficult to fully understand what has transpired in Dallas since losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Even weeks after Harrison pulled the trigger on what may just be the most shocking trade in NBA history by sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, many around the league still don't understand the direction of this franchise.
Well, an unprecedented direction is now clear in light of Irving suffering a season-ending ACL injury — yet another devastating blow to a franchise that held so much promise.
Doncic is gone and finds himself in a position to contend for a championship next to LeBron James in Los Angeles. Irving, who is turning 33 at the end of March, is now out until sometime in the middle of the 2025-26 season with a catastrophic injury. Few details have been shed on Davis' groin injury, which could lead to him missing the remainder of the year.
So much has happened to the Mavericks in such a short period, which is why there aren't any positives being associated with the question of, “What's next for Dallas?”
Kyrie Irving injury essentially ends Mavericks' season
As unfortunate as it is, injuries always alter the trajectory of NBA history. After all, if it wasn't for a string of injuries that the Brooklyn Nets dealt with, Irving may have never gone to the Mavs, and perhaps he would've won a title alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden.
Of course, asking what if in NBA history creates a magnitude of storytelling that never happened. The reality is that Irving left the Nets for the Mavericks, and he just made the NBA Finals alongside Doncic.
All seemed right for Dallas, a franchise that made the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and seemed to be in the perfect spot to contend for titles over the next decade with Luka at the helm. Doncic is going to contend for titles in the Western Conference, but he will now do so with the Lakers instead of the Mavericks.
For Irving, his future is now very much uncertain due to a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury that now creates serious questions about what the Mavs' intentions are.
Kyrie has a $43.9 million player option for the 2025-26 season that he will very likely be utilizing in the offseason to stay in Dallas. Unfortunately, this ACL injury means Irving will be sidelined through the start of next season and possibly until closer to the 2026 All-Star break.
Already, the 2025-26 season is overshadowed for the Mavericks since Doncic is in Los Angeles, Irving is out indefinitely, and Davis' injury is unknown as well.
As far as the immediate 2024-25 season goes, this year is over for Dallas.
On top of Irving and Davis being out with injuries, the Mavericks have also been without Dereck Lively II since the middle of January due to an ankle stress fracture and Daniel Gafford since the second week of February with an MCL sprain.
To make matters worse, PJ Washington has been banged up, Caleb Martin has been dealing with ongoing hip problems, and Jaden Hardy suffered a significant ankle sprain during the same game on Monday night when Irving injured his ACL.
Are the Mavericks cursed?
Some may say so, but a lack of vision and questionable decision-making led Dallas to face the scenario of their season being over. The Mavs can't recover without Irving, and there is a very real possibility that they could miss the Western Conference play-in tournament altogether.
At 32-30 and just 3.5 games ahead of the 11th-place Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks are in trouble.
Anything can happen, and Dallas could potentially get some players back from injury before the conclusion of the regular season. Even so, what's the point of making the play-in tournament and attempting to compete without a star on the floor?
Nobody could've predicted Irving's injury, as freak accidents happen all the time across the NBA. However, the Mavericks are spiraling out of control and facing an apocalyptic situation where they may need to start over after trading Doncic.
Where Mavericks go from here
What have the Mavericks done to actually better their overall outlook?
Doncic was traded for Davis, a great player in his own right, but he is constantly dealing with bumps and bruises. It wasn't all that shocking to see him get injured in his first game as a member of the Mavericks given his history and the fact that they rushed him back from an abdominal strain to silence all the Luka trade critics.
There was also another trade that Dallas made before the deadline involving Quentin Grimes and a second-round pick going to Philadelphia for Caleb Martin, who has yet to play for the Mavs. Well, Grimes could certainly be useful for the Mavericks right about now considering he just scored 44 points in a game and both Irving and Hardy are down for the count.
The worst part about the trade deadline, outside of giving up Doncic, is that Dallas has no room to make any changes whatsoever since they are right at the first-apron hard cap.
All the Mavericks can do now is play out their remaining 20 games this season and hope for the best. But what does that even mean for this organization? What is the best scenario that could present itself for a Mavs team without Davis, Irving, Lively, and Gafford with just one month left in the regular season?
At this point, throwing in the towel and attempting to make their 2025 first-round pick as good as it can be is the only thing that could be rewarding for the Mavericks. You never know what could happen during the draft lottery, and maybe it makes the most sense for Dallas to sink into the bottom 10 of the standings.
Winning now was the only thing on Harrison's mind when he gave up Doncic for Davis, Max Christie, and a future first-round pick. There aren't many who would side with the Mavericks on making this trade, but Harrison was aggressive and got a player in Davis that he believed could push this team closer to a championship.
Right now, this trade looks like one of the greatest mistakes in NBA history, especially when you factor in everything the Mavericks are dealing with now in terms of injuries. From a big-picture approach and heading into the offseason, it's still very hard to envision the Mavs having any sort of championship window.
As far as this roster goes, the Mavericks still have good players. Davis is the best two-way big man in the NBA when healthy, Washington has played the best basketball of his career in Dallas, and this team will have the best frontcourt in the league once Lively and Gafford can take the court with Davis.
However, Klay Thompson isn't anything more than a shooting threat from the perimeter at this stage of his career, and Dallas won't have any cap flexibility to expand their talent in the offseason in the wake of Irving's significant knee injury.
The Mavericks are already on the books for $187.8 million for the 2025-26 season. This could change if Irving surprisingly opts out and becomes a free agent, but that won't happen now that he will miss a massive portion of next year.
Outside of having no cap space to maneuver around Irving's injury, the All-Star guard's long-term future as one of the faces of the team is in serious jeopardy due to this ACL injury late in his career.
Will the Mavs want to give Irving an extension now, or will they wait to see how he looks coming off this ACL injury? Is having Davis as the team's only star good enough for Dallas to win at the highest level possible next year?
These are the two questions that loom large over Harrison and the Mavericks' front office ahead of the offseason, one that could force them to blow things up and revamp their roster.
Doncic never wanted to leave. He intended to stay in Dallas for his entire career. That is not what Harrison wanted, though, so now Doncic will spend the remainder of his career playing for the Lakers, where he will win at least one championship.
There is a small chance all could be forgiven by the Mavericks faithful, and Harrison could finish on top with a championship, but his plan to contend over the next few years with Davis, Irving, and a plethora of secondary pieces is no longer.
This plan has backfired and blew up right in front of Harrison over the span of a month. And now, the championship window that Doncic had opened in Dallas for the first time since Dirk Nowitzki's title in 2011 has slammed shut in the blink of an eye.
The Mavericks, who made the NBA Finals less than a year ago with Doncic and Irving leading the way, are now without both superstars.
That's the nature of this league.
