Why The Dallas Mavericks Do The Deal 

We could have written a Westbrook deal for Dallas in a few different ways. 

They could send the Lakers Spencer Dinwiddie if they wanted an extra first-round pick from them. On the other hand, doing so would likely absolutely tank their season – they’d be left without a ball-handler behind Doncic outside of Westbrook. 

On a related note: something tells us that head coach Jason Kidd won’t be putting Westbrook alongside Doncic very often.

We’ve seen how that tends to look. It’s more likely that Westbrook would carry the second unit while Doncic was resting. 

LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Russell Westbrook, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates

Frankly, Dallas is only interested in the pick here. It seems likely that, eventually, they’ll need to make a trade for Doncic’s co-star. This deal is about landing an extra asset to make that deal happen. 

Hopefully, it’ll eventually result in a season the Mavericks don’t have to reevaluate midway through.