The Mavericks Nightmare Keeps Getting Worse

I can’t believe what’s happening in Dallas..

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Nico Harrison said that time will tell if he made the right call on the Anthony Davis trade, but unfortunately for him, he was just about the only person who needed time to figure that out. I mean, for me, it’s the most, you know, I’ve lost since, you know, I think ever. So, you know, it’s obviously a lot different. And yeah, I feel bad for uh for my mass fans. They can’t shoot, they can’t make plays, nobody can make shots. It’s been uh it’s been tough to watch. That Luca Donic and Anthony Davis trade was so crazy that it instantly became one of those iconic sports moments where you vividly remember what you were doing when the news broke. If you’re among the many who remember that precise moment, drop your story in the comments below. For me, nothing spectacular was happening. I was tired and riding in the car with my fiance on our way home from a family function. But that nothingness quickly turned into sheer chaos as I stared in disbelief at one of the craziest notifications that I have ever received. For about half an hour, I sat frozen, convinced that Shams must have gotten hacked. But as the minutes passed, the shocking reality started to set in. This wasn’t some shady internet prank. The Los Angeles Lakers had actually landed Luca Donuch. They had done it again. Turns out that Lakers fans were right all along. I was the one who looked foolish, constantly defending other franchises from those notorious Laker trade proposals. The ones where they’d package a bunch of role players and nothing and throw in some draft picks, hoping to land an elite franchise talent. And the Lakers didn’t just land any elite franchise talent. They landed Luca Donuch. This meme posted by Playoff Sports was meant to be a joke, saying that this is how Lakers fans think that trades work. But honestly, who could blame them at this point? They’ve pulled off trades like this more times than Russell Westbrook has triple doubles. The point that I’m trying to make is that they do this a lot. If the Lakers say that they’re about to get my team’s franchise player, who’s to say that they aren’t? Luca Donuch was supposed to be one of the few untouchables, but clearly untouchable has a different meaning when you’re Los Angeles. Just as most of us suspected, the early returns for Dallas have been catastrophic. And honestly, even catastrophic feels like an understatement right now. As you saw in a recent Pelicans video of mine titled, “The Pelicans knew this day was coming.” I thought that things were rough for my New Orleans Pelicans, but clearly we don’t have anything on the Dallas Mavericks. But before we go any further, if you are enjoying the content, then be sure to drop a like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so that you don’t miss an upload. The Dallas Mavericks front office is spiraling, and the lack of a clear strategy has never been more evident. We all saw the writing on the wall the second that they shipped out one of the league’s all-time offensive geniuses for Anthony Davis, or as Charles Barkley likes to call him, street clothes. I’ve tried my best to shield Anthony Davis from that silly street closed nickname, but honestly, with each passing game that he misses, defending him becomes an increasingly impossible task. How they didn’t get Austin Reeves involved in that trade is beyond me. I’d bet that when Austin Reeves found that Luca Donuch was coming to Los Angeles that he himself was surprised that he hadn’t been sent packing his bags for Dallas. For some reason, I can visualize Austin Reeves cooking in Dallas. If you make that trade, you just have to get him involved in that deal. And don’t overlook the fact that Nico Harrison made another disastrous move shortly after the Luca Donuch trade. I’m talking about sending Quinton Grimes to Philly. That trade tends to fly under the radar given the magnitude of the Luca Donuch debacle, but Grimes is a certified bucket, a plus defender, and the type of high energy guy that every winning team covets. After the move to Philadelphia last year, Grimes averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game, he’s kept it going this season, too. Even with a crowded back court featuring Tyrese Maxi, DJ Edgecomb, and Jared McCain. I know that McCain had been dealing with that injury, but that doesn’t fit my agenda. Trading Quinton Grimes wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, but did he have to kick the camel as he walked past it? When the Dallas Mavericks made the Luca Donic trade, they did so under the guise that defense wins championships and to win now and in the future. So, let’s check in on how that’s going. The Mavs lack of winning after the trade landed them in the NBA lottery where they suspiciously got the number one pick after having just a 1.8% 8% chance to win said lottery. Upon drafting Cooper Flag, the Mavs desire to win would be reinforced, and Flag’s camp would certainly welcome the landing spot as they were excited about him joining a playoff caliber team filled with experienced veterans and a clear opening at the small forward position. Dallas’s roster may be flawed and struggling to stay healthy, but there’s still genuine talent there. The real issue though is that this talent was a symbol to complement an elite superstar level engine and primary ball handler. Exactly the role that Luca Donuch once filled. Without him, the pieces simply don’t fit the same way. The Mavericks had been pushing the idea of Cooper Flag being a point guard to start the season. And with the team losing Luca and Kyrie’s injury and Cooper Flag’s exceptional playmaking ability for a wing, you could understand why they wanted to give this experiment a go. There was just one glaring problem. This was never going to be a win now move. Even if Cooper Flag had come in as a Luca Donic level rookie, which let’s be clear, he isn’t and only few have been, there would still be plenty of bumps, bruises, and growing pains along the way. Handing Flag the Keys as the primary ball handler was always going to be a long-term play. Years from now, we’ll either look back and say those early point guard reps were pivotal in his growth, or we’ll realized that Dallas rushed things and stunted some of his development. Either way, Flag was never going to rescue this franchise from mediocrity, nor was he going to reopen the championship window that they carelessly abandoned. Yet again, most people understood this except for the Dallas Mavericks. With any point guard barely playing minutes and not having a point guard in their starting lineup, the Mavericks would lose their first two games in disappointing fashion. In the first game, Flag got zero assists. And in the second game, he had five turnovers. When Anthony Davis was asked about the Mavericks offensive struggles, he mentioned the heavy reliance on isolation basketball, emphasizing that’s not how they want to play, even though they have players who can create an isolation. Davis stressed the need to swing the ball from side to side. And when Anthony Davis was asked about the challenges of playing without a true point guard, Davis simply pointed out that opposing teams have started picking them up full court, causing Dallas to initiate their offense deeper into the shot clock. In a league with a 24-second shot clock, losing those extra seconds can disrupt rhythm, derail plan sets, and force rushed door contested shots. Those seconds matter a lot. To me, it sounded like playing a traditional point guard decent minutes was a big deal. The third game of the season, the Mavericks would play DLO 29 minutes. And you guys wouldn’t believe this, but they won. And with all due respect to DLo, the guy isn’t Steve Nash or anything at this stage of his career, so the consistency is going to come and go. D’Angelo Russell played a fantastic game and finished with a game high plus 26. But something he said earlier in the season still has me concerned. When asked if he had shared any words of wisdom with Cooper Flag, DLO responded with this. Um not really. I think he’s ready. You know, um his supporting support system has, you know, kept him ready, kept him mentally prepared for this opportunity. So I don’t think there’s anything I can say or do. Um, you got guys like Kyrie and AD as well that, you know, kind of put that bug in his ear, but he’s got a good supporting team around him that’s prepared for these opportunities situation. And when AD was asked if any moment stuck out when giving Flag advice, he said this, be honest, we we didn’t talk at all this summer. I thought we first had our conversation uh to be honest. Um, I mean, cuz I I mean, I wasn’t here. uh you know dealing with the eye and all that type of stuff. He asks a ton of questions. Um he wants to learn the game. He wants to know uh what’s position to be in, what spot to be in. Cooper Flag is an open book who’s hungry to learn and he clearly needs more highlevel veteran leadership beyond Kyrie who to his credit has been great in guiding him. Ironically, a healthy Kyrie at the start of this season would have been ideal for Cooper. And a fully engaged Anthony Davis certainly wouldn’t have hurt either. Remember in a recent video when we talked about Anthony Davis showing up to training camp out of shape, listed at 268 lbs, 15 lbs heavier than his reported weight to start last season. Then he went out then said this. I feel good. Um I’m kind of almost going to every season uh cuz I put on so much weight in the summer. Uh then by time um you know like November come like 258. So, uh, I never want to come in at my plan weight cuz then I lose weight during the season being I’m too small. So, I try to go cuz I I lose about 10 to 12 lbs like very quickly during camp. I already lost 5 lbs, you know, like all the running and playing. So, um, I’m never concerned about that. I feel great. I’m moving great. Uh, I feel good. At the time, I defended AD saying that he’d have no trouble playing himself into shape. But despite putting up some solid numbers to start the year, AD has still looked sluggish. And while it’s true that he didn’t have a real chance to get into peak form because of injuries, that’s exactly the problem. This places even more pressure onto a rookie who’s already being thrust into an incredibly demanding role from day one. Cooper Flag is elite, but the Mavs are making no part of his development easy. Flag is clearly frustrated after losing to a Pelicans team who was on the second night of a backto back and only had one win coming into their game. Flag said this for me it’s the most you know I’ve lost since you know I think ever. So you know it’s obviously a lot different and you have to adapt to just playing a lot more games and you know get get um used to that. But you know I would I wouldn’t say anybody’s happy. Um, you know, guys obviously trying to stay levelheaded and know that we got a lot more games to go and it’s still really early, but I mean, I’m just speaking personally. I know it’s not it’s not fun um to just keep losing losing games. So, like to make a change and hopefully start, you know, making steps in the right direction. I think it’s pretty funny that it was a loss to my New Orleans Pelicans that caused Cooper Flag to do some reflecting. Like, come on, man. We’re not that bad, but at least Cooper Flag left that game with something. Alabama won SEC player of the year as a senior at Bama. Misses on a drive. Brandon Williams pushes a tempo. Di [Applause] I doubt this poster is enough to take away the pain of the Mavs being as bad as they’ve been, but at least it’s something. What’s crazy is that Cooper Flag has actually shown significant growth as a playmaker, consistently setting his teammates up with quality looks. But with the Mavericks currently shooting just 30% from three, one of the worst marks in the entire league, it almost doesn’t matter how well he’s creating because those shots aren’t going in. Check out this possession from the Mavericks lost to the Grizzlies. Dallas actually runs a solid action here. Flag gets open off a screen from DLo, catches the ball, then navigates another screen set by Daniel Gaford. He penetrates into the paint, draws multiple defenders, and kicks it out to PJ Washington, who simply doesn’t hit the shot. The Mavericks aren’t the Showtime Lakers or the KD era Warriors. Great ball movement and open looks don’t grow on trees over there. So, when you do get those opportunities, you’ve got to knock them down. To be clear, I’m not criticizing PJ Washington specifically, even though he has struggled from deep early this season. It’s just that this possession highlights how Flag and the offense are occasionally creating quality looks. But if nobody’s knocking down these shots, it’s just putting extra pressure on everyone and making everything harder. What are you supposed to do when you’re shooting specialist and one of the greatest shooters ever and Klay Thompson can’t even throw a rock in the ocean? Mind you that the Mavs want to play basketball with multiple bigs on the floor. They’re really trying their best to give Flag that prime Westbrook Oklahoma City Thunder spacing. To me, it speaks to Flag’s ability that he’s had the season that he’s had so far. Regardless of how well Anthony Davis, Cooper Flag, or even a healthy Kyrie Irving performed, the odds of this team transforming into a contender were always slim. With their constant injury issues, it’s difficult to envision this current Mavericks roster rising to the level of a playin team, let alone a true playoff threat. It’s not really too surprising to me that during one point this season, that the Mavs had the worst relative offensive rating in NBA history, according to basketball reference. And while all this struggling and bad offense is going on in Dallas, Luca is doing something stupid like averaging a 40point triple double as he’s in the best shape of his life. The Mavs can’t even sell high on the guys that Luca elevated and made look way better. Without him, that Lucax has vanished, and all those once highlevel complimentary pieces are now being exposed as just regular role players. The Mavericks might need to look into trading Anthony Davis. Drop your best AD trade packages down in the comments below. I’ll pick out the most intriguing ones and break them down in detail in our next Anthony Davis upload. The Mavericks had a great team, upgraded it to the brink of perfection, and then inexplicably tore it all down. Against all odds, they lucked into the number one overall pick. Now, somebody better step in before they find a way to ruin that, too. What’s next? Cooper flag at center. Look, I’m perfectly fine with point flag, but I can’t stand how the Mavs are approaching his development. This is clearly something that they could have eased into rather than just throwing him into the deep end right away. You guys know Flag though, he’s always going to make the best out of a bad situation. There was all this talk about the Mavs having the right culture and whatnot when the Mavs actual culture is missing Luca. Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a first round pick will never be enough. What do we think about this entire situation? Where do the Mavs go from here? And what would you do if you were Dallas? Anyways, there’s some more in the basketball universe that we have to be covering. So, clicking one of the videos that’s on the screen right now is a great way to support this channel. I’m Get Like Coupe, bringing you guys the scoop. Until our next upload. [Music]