The Dallas Mavericks' 2025-26 season is crashing before it even gets a chance to get off the ground. On Monday night, the Mavericks let another golden opportunity to win slip away from their fingertips, losing to the Milwaukee Bucks, 116-114, to fall to 3-8 on the season. Considering how unforgiving the West is and considering their injury woes, this might be a death sentence already for their playoff hopes.
If anything, this could be a year where it's worthwhile for the Mavericks to tank and perhaps add another blue-chip prospect alongside Flagg. After all, they own their first-round pick this year; this will be the final time they will do so until 2031, as they are out their first-rounders from 2027 to 2030 after the win-now trades they pulled off in recent years to supplement their Luka Doncic-led core.
To that end, NBA insider Marc Stein is urging the Mavericks to assess whether or not it'd be best for them to try and trade away Daniel Gafford, who has $54.4 million left on the three years remaining on his contract.
“A case thus can be made, perhaps sooner rather than later, that shopping one of their most attractive trade candidates (Gafford) for future assets is an approach to weigh strongly when the next draft offers an opportunity to get lucky again,” Stein wrote.
There is no shortage of teams in the NBA who would benefit greatly from the addition of Gafford. If the Mavericks do trade him, they can at least recoup some future assets and set themselves up for a brighter future amid a bleak present.
Mavericks' strength turns into glaring weakness
General manager Nico Harrison's justification for trading away Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package headlined by Anthony Davis was that “defense wins championships”. But that defense isn't even winning ballgames at the moment, what with their best defensive players currently on the mend with injuries.
This Mavericks roster was already imbalanced to begin the season, leaning heavily on their stacked frontcourt to overpower teams. But that frontcourt has been depleted all season long, and Dallas is reeling as a result. Wholesale changes may soon come for this struggling team.
