The Dallas Mavericks’ struggles this season have been well documented and likely won’t be resting anytime soon. Their worldwide leader, Luka Dončić, had another hot start, but that only translated into a 9-7 record, and the team barely kept its head above the water. While Dončić was playing at MVP level, he failed to bring his team along and make them a better unit.
Dončić recently became the second fastest player in NBA history to score 50 doubles three times in his career. See “bakers“plays like a man-destroying derby. He can do a lot of things and influence the game in many offensive ways, but he still doesn’t fully trust the people around him.
Luka leads the NBA in points scored in the first month with an average of 33.5 points per game. Mavs ranked 25th in the association with a score of 109.1 ppg while ranked last in assists per game with 20.8. Dončić is taking my anti-world attitude to another level, and as usual, it’s to the detriment of the team.
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However, we cannot put all the blame on Dončić’s shoulders. Headquarters and head coach Jason Kidd are also responsible. Although it looks like Mavs turned the tide last year with run uncertain to the Western Conference Finals, they took a big setback earlier this season.
Honestly, Dallas has been swinging and missing out when surrounding his star with other players. It didn’t work out when they had, or they didn’t keep those players on the roster.
A prime example of this is the arrival of Jalen Brunson as Luka’s sidekick and No. 2 pick last season. Brunson carried the Mavs through the first round of the post-season, with Dončić losing half of the series to the Utah Jazz. After that, the season and the free agency period passed, and it was a foregone conclusion that Brunson was going to New York, where he currently resides as a Knick. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban seems to have made little effort to keep Brunson on the payroll.
Then there was the failed Kristaps Porzingis deal last year. Porzingis was clearly not the “unicorn” he was once called. His frustration at playing alongside Dončić is obvious. Porzingis and Mavs have seen enough, and unicorns are transaction arrived in Washington on last season’s trade deadline for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertrand. Dinwiddie is a great addition, but he cannot be second choice on a team with championship aspirations.
Dallas also traded for former Houston Rockets rising star Christian Wood over the summer, and he was tipped to be the answer in helping the Mavs capitalize on what they started last season. So far, that hasn’t materialized in Dallas with Wood on the roster. For some reason, Kidd chose not to play Wood much in the second half of this year’s games. In the loss to the Thunder in extra time, Wood never hit the floor in the inning.
“We left C Wood out there with that group, and it didn’t go well either side,” Kidd said. speak Wood’s sitting late in the game.
You’ve traded for this player, so you need to give him a chance to get to know and mingle with your star and the rest of his teammates. The Mavs are expected to be contenders for the knockout stages and they will need Wood if they are to go as deep once again as last season.
In the end, Dončić needed to decide if he wanted to be remembered as another great goalscorer or if he wanted to be an all-time great who learned how to make his teammates stand out. get better and win trophies. Michael Jordan had to figure that out, and once he started believing in his team, the Bulls broke through and became the championship team. Dončić is no Jordan, but he wants to conquer the world on his own like Jordan did early on.
That one-on-one streetball mentality doesn’t win in the NBA today. It never really has. Look no further than players like James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, etc. Durant won when he played on the ball move system, and sometimes he wasn’t happy about that. Irving won riding LeBron James’ ponytail, and that’s no exaggeration. Dončić will have to learn to trust. Until then, Luka will be another flashy high-profile scorer who continues to lack record in the post-season period.
