The future of the Dallas Mavericks was forever changed on June 21, 2018 when the Atlanta Hawks were on the clock with the 3rd overall pick in the draft. Dallas had their eye on one guy throughout the whole NBA Draft process and they were able to strike a deal with Atlanta in order to acquire the 3rd pick, which was used to select their guy, Luka Doncic from Slovenia.
In this trade, the Mavericks traded two first-round picks to the Hawks, which were used to draft Trae Young in 2018 and Cam Reddish in 2019, so it is safe to say that this trade has worked out so far for both teams! Since he entered the league in 2018, Luka Doncic has constantly been getting better and is now one of the faces of the entire league at just 22-years-old!
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After winning Rookie of the Year during the 2018-19 season, Doncic went on to make his first All-Star appearance during the 2019-20 season and this year, he made it back-to-back appearance to the All-Star game. In just three seasons, Doncic’s career is highly decorated, but there are plenty more awards and accolades coming in his future.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks to the 5-seed in the Western Conference this year and while they fell in Game 7 to the Clippers in the first-round, Luka Doncic was spectacular in this series, averaging 35.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 10.3 assists and shooting 40.8% from three-point range.
With Doncic leading them, the Mavericks are going to continue to grow as a team as he grows into one of the best talents in the league, but there’s a lot of concern about his teammate Kristaps Porzingis. Dallas acquired Porzingis in a trade with the Knicks in 2019, forming what was expected to be one of the best young duos in the league, but the Latvian big man has quickly been regressing.
Now, looking back on this trade with the Knicks in 2019, we should not call this the “Kristaps Porzingis trade” anymore because Tim Hardaway Jr., who also came to Dallas in this trade, has outplayed him, which is why we are going to start calling this the “Tim Hardaway Jr. trade” between New York and Dallas!
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There is more talk about Tim Hardaway Jr. being the second-best player on the Mavericks right now instead of Kristaps Porzingis, which is not a good look for the former All-Star big man that still has three-years and $101.5M left on his contract.
This offseason, the Mavericks are expected to gauge interest in Kristaps Porzingis league-wide, but as of right now, no teams have shown any interest in him. Maybe things will change as the offseason progresses, but with Porzingis coming off a very poor postseason series against the Clippers and having a ton of money left on this contract, Dallas is going to have a very tough time finding a trade partner for Porzingis should they look to trade him.
Overall, this offseason will be all about getting Luka Doncic more help, being it was very apparent in this first-round series against the Clippers that he needed help. As much as it looks like he can, Luka Doncic cannot carry this team on his own, which is why Dallas is going to be aggressive in their search for more talent this offseason.
