The Whiteboard: Dream or reality for the Dallas Mavericks

After last season’s run to the NBA Finals, the Dallas Mavericks are clear on their goal for this season.

“Championship,” Luka Doncic said at Monday’s media day. “That’s the goal.”

For as close as the Mavericks were to being crowned 2024 champions, it also feels like they weren’t. They lost to the Boston Celtics in five, most uncompetitive games. Luka Doncic was the series’ leading scorer and rebounder and was second in assists, but his supporting cast paled in comparison to Boston’s overpowering ensemble. 

So, despite a surprising run to the Finals, the Mavericks entered the offseason knowing further tweaks were needed around Doncic and Kyrie Irving. The hope is that Klay Thompson, their prized free agent, can be the final piece to put them over the top.

"I feel like our dreams can be possible because he's here now," Irving said.

Thompson’s new teammates and coaches fawned over his 3-point shooting and championship experience. Thompson, 34, won four titles in 13 seasons with the Golden State Warriors and ranks sixth in NBA history with 2,481 3-pointers made.

According to ESPN, “the Mavs prioritized adding a 3-point threat after struggling from long range in the Finals.”

Struggling is an understatement. Dallas made just 31.6% of its 3s in the Finals, including 29.4% from above the break.

Thompson is a career 41.3% 3-point shooter and made 38.7% of his 3s from above the break last season. 

The Mavericks’ offense was efficient, but there was too much painting based on numbers. No team was more reliant on generating corner 3s than the Mavericks, and they soared when P.J. Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. were on hot streaks. But when they went cold (as they did in the Finals), the Mavs became too one-dimensional.

Introducing Thompson to the Mavericks’ mix will add a dynamic layer. Thompson is an expert at moving without the ball and finding openings to get off his shot. He’s an efficient marksman from every zone on the court, and will open new passing angles for Doncic and Irving beyond sending dishes to the corners.

“When you talk about Klay, he's going to go down as one of the best shooters of all-time,” coach Jason Kidd said. “To have him on our side, it just makes the game offensively easier. Spacing is a big thing in our league.”

Spacing is big, but so is defense. And it was a huge part of the Mavericks’ surge to the Finals. Before the All-Star break, Dallas ranked 19th in DRTG (116.2) compared to 13th (112.1) after the break. The Mavericks defense got even better in the playoffs, holding opponents to 110.7 points per 100 possessions, which would have ranked third in the regular season.

The assumption is that Thompson will take Jones’ spot in the starting lineup. Offensively, a major upgrade. Defensively? Erm, not so much. Jones was Dallas’ top wing defender, consistently drawing one of the toughest assignments and setting the tone by embracing his role. Thompson hasn’t been a high-level defender since tearing his ACL in the 2019 Finals. 

A trio of Doncic, Irving and Thompson can’t be trusted to defend at the point of attack. A lot will be asked of Washington and Dereck Lively II in that starting group, but Kidd emphasized the need to defend by committee and suggested that responsibilities will be toggled with matchups.

“I know everyone thinks I was joking, but Luka is gonna have to guard somebody,” Kidd quipped.

The Mavericks made a choice to address a need on offense but, in doing so, opened up a hole on defense.

If it doesn’t work, Kidd can always move Thompson to the bench and replace him with Naji Marshall or Quentin Grimes. But those decisions are what helped lead to Thompson’s eventual departure from Golden State. Thompson didn’t join the Mavericks to come off the bench, and that’s certainly not the vision in Dallas.

Their offense could be the best in the league with that trio, and a great offense can help lift an average defense. That’s the dream in Dallas. We’ll see if it’s a reality.

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NBA news roundup: 

• More details on the Karl-Anthony Towns trade: The Knicks will send the Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, guard Donte DiVincenzo, forward Keita Bates-Diop and a future first-round pick via the Detroit Pistons. As a third team in the trade, the Charlotte Hornets will receive three second-round picks (two via the Knicks, one via Minnesota) along with DaQuan Jeffries, Charlie Brown and Duane Washington Jr. to complete the deal. The Knicks will also acquire the draft rights to James Nnaji from the Hornets, The Athletic reported.

• The Houston Rockets are expected to sign center Alperen Sengun to an extension, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen. There’s a “legitimate chance” both sides will come to an agreement, a person with knowledge of the conversations told Feigan. Sengun is eligible for an extension worth up to $224 million over five seasons. Jalen Green is also eligible for the same extension, but there hasn’t been an update on that situation.

• Lonzo Ball says he’ll be ready for the Chicago Bulls’ season opener, “for sure.” Ball hasn’t played in an NBA game since Jan. 14, 2021 after undergoing a procedure on his left knee. 

• Jaren Jackson Jr. injured his hamstring on the first day of Memphis Grizzlies training camp and is expected to miss “some time.” Jackson could potentially miss part of the Grizzlies’ preseason and regular-season opener, depending on the severity of the strain.

Worth your time:

• Karl-Anthony Towns meant a lot to his community and vice-versa. After nine seasons in Minnesota, he was surprisingly traded to the New York Knicks and his tenure with the Timberwolves came to an end. The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski wrote about Towns fulfilling one last promise to a 9-year-old girl in the final hours of his time in Minnesota. It’s a proper send-off and a reminder of what athletes can mean to communities.

Top quotes from media day you might have missed:

• “You sound scared,” Erik Spoelstra told a reporter who questioned the Heat’s status in an Eastern Conference flush with new talent. “You have to be about it. Our guys are about it.”

• Steph Curry talked about if the Warriors can run the same scheme on offense with a new-look supporting cast: “I know there’s a Warrior mentality and culture of how we do things, there’s a system that we’ve run for a decade-plus that has worked. It doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how this team needs to play."

• “I would use the word rebuilding,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said when asked how he’d describe the upcoming season.

• A noticeably slimmer Joel Embiid, who said he lost 25-30 pounds, said the goal is to be healthy for the postseason: "There's no agenda, there's no All-Star, there's no All-NBA, there's none of that," he said. "It's whatever it takes to make sure that I get to that point and I'm ready to go because ... basically every single year in my career, I've been hurt in the playoffs. So that's the goal, and it's all about doing whatever it takes to get there."

• James Harden is the system, player: “It’s definitely going to involve a lot of me,” Harden said of the Clippers offense without Paul George. “There was talk when I was in Houston… ‘You can’t win like that.’ You just saw a guy [Luka Doncic] last season make the Finals playing the same exact way I played.”