By: Marselis Davis
After a spectacular 2022 playoff run, many people expected the Mavericks to be at least a playoff team this season. The Mavericks had just come off of a surprise appearance in the 2022 Western Conference Finals, in which they defeated the 64-win Suns in the process. However, the Mavericks ended up missing the playoffs and Play-In entirely, even after making a midseason blockbuster trade to acquire Kyrie Irving. This raises the question: What caused the Dallas Mavericks to miss the 2023 playoffs? This can be summarized into four main reasons:
Losing Jalen Brunson
Heading into the 2022 offseason, Jalen Brunson became a free agent. He had just come off of a career year, averaging 16.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.8 assists. He had an even better playoff run, averaging 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists as the second-best player on the team. It was expected that Brunson would continue to grow alongside Luka the following year. However, the Mavericks lost Brunson as soon as free agency opened, as Brunson chose to sign a four-year, $104 million dollar deal with the New York Knicks. While tampering may have been involved in the immediate Knicks’ signing of Brunson, the results were devastating for the Mavericks. By losing the second-best player on the team for nothing, the Mavericks had even less talent around Luka, which contributed to a very rocky start to the season for the Mavericks. While the Mavericks managed to reach as high as the 4th seed, they never fully recovered from the impact that Brunson provided to the team.
Team Defense
During the 2022 season, the Mavericks were one of the best defensive teams in the league, ranking sixth in defensive rating in the league. Their elite defense carried on in the postseason as well. In the final two games of their 2022 series against the Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks held the Suns’ best player, Devin Booker, to just 15 points per game in order to complete the upset. In the 2023 season, the Mavericks strangely regressed heavily in defensive rating, despite having most of their best defensive players still on the team. The addition of Christian Wood, who is a poor defender, probably contributed to the decline. After losing their best wing defender in Dorian Finney-Smith in order to acquire Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks’ defense regressed even more, leading to a 24th-ranked defensive rating by the end of the season.
Poor Rebounding
The Dallas Mavericks were a poor rebounding team the entire year, but were even worse after the Irving trade. The starting center for the Mavericks was averaging only four rebounds per game, which is a massive detriment to the team. Beyond that, losing Dorian Finney Smith to an even smaller player in Irving made their rebounding even worse. By the end of the season, the Mavericks finished dead last in team rebounding, with only 38.8 rebounds per game, almost two full rebounds behind the next team, the Brooklyn Nets (40.5 rebounds per game).
The West Got Better
Another major contributor to the Mavericks’ downfall comes down to a simple reason: The West simply got better. In 2022, the West mainly had two teams that were considered serious contenders, being the Suns and the Warriors. However, the 2023 season saw multiple teams emerge as contenders, especially after the trade deadline. The Suns acquired Kevin Durant, the Nuggets were fully healthy, the Kings emerged out of the lottery as a strong playoff team, the Lakers made multiple trades at the deadline that dramatically improved their roster, the Grizzlies continued to build off of their prior season, and the Warriors were defending champions. With all of the improvements in the West, the Mavericks’ deficiencies further pulled them out of competitiveness in the West.
Heading into the 2024 season, the Mavericks would need to address their issues with defense and rebounding in order to contend in the West. While it is nice that Luka got a second star in Kyrie Irving, the trade did not properly address the issues that the Mavericks already had before Irving; it made them worse. Hopefully, the Mavericks can ensure to keep Luka’s prime competitiveness as the years go forward.
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