What Happened to the Mavericks After the Luka Doncic Trade?

One month after one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the Mavericks find themselves in free fall, with a string of bad luck and the future of the franchise very much up in the air. 

Just past midnight on February 2, the Mavericks shocked the world by trading 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and Max Christie. It was a gamble on reshaping their roster, but so far, moving on from Doncic has been nothing short of a disaster, while the Lakers look like contenders in the Western Conference.

This marked the first-time in NBA history that two reigning All-NBA players were traded for each other midseason. It was a stunning move for a franchise that just made its first NBA Finals appearance since 2011, mostly on the back of Doncic and other key pieces they added at last year’s trade deadline.

Doncic was thought to be a potential “Maverick for life”, following in the footsteps of former Maverick European great Dirk Nowitzki. Davis and LeBron James made a formidable duo for the Lakers, but Davis wanted the team to get a center so he could play power forward where he could be at his best. 

At the time, both players were dealing with injuries — Doncic (calf) and Davis (abdomen) — and since their debuts, it’s been completely opposite results for both teams, with the Lakers thriving and Mavs struggling. It’s led to fans calling for GM Nico Harrison to be fired, as the team’s hopes of building a dynasty around Doncic have been dashed. 

Let’s dive into more analysis and the results of the Luka Doncic trade so far below, and how the trade, plus some bad luck, has completely decimated the future of the Mavericks franchise.

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What Have The Mavericks Done Since The Luka Doncic Trade?

It has been quite the whirlwind and tumultuous time in Dallas since the trade. Dallas made another trade just two days later, shipping Quentin Grimes and a second-round to the Philadelphia 76ers for Caleb Martin. 

This was a questionable trade as well for Dallas, but on a much smaller scale, given Grimes and Martin are role players. Grimes is five years younger than Martin, and Dallas added a second-round pick in the trade as well. 

Martin was also injured at the time of the trade and hasn’t played a single minute since arriving in Dallas. Meanwhile, Grimes has found himself as a starter for the Sixers due to injury, scoring 30 or more points in three games since his debut on February 7.

Since the trade, the Mavericks are just under .500 with a 6-8 record. They initially had a stretch where they won three straight and five of six games. Since then however, they have lost three straight and five of their last six games, and things aren’t looking up after the season-ending injury to Kyrie Irving.

What’s Working For The Mavericks Since the Doncic Trade?

Unlike the Lakers, there is pretty much nothing working in Dallas’ favor now after the Doncic. It honestly could not be much worse for Dallas right now, especially after losing Kyrie Irving for the season to a torn ACL — marking the definite end of the soon-to-be 33-year-old's prime.

The one metric they have seen some increase in are field goal attempts, seeing a slight uptick in pace since Doncic left. 

While Davis has only played one game with the Mavericks before going down with an injury, Christie hasn’t performed great so far in an expanded role. In three games in March, Christie is shooting 22.2% from 3-point range, and he has only one game with over 20 points across 13 games. He also has more turnovers than steals so far with Dallas.

In good news, it’s possible that they will get Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II back soon, as both are getting close to game action, while P.J. Washington’s injury isn’t expected to be long-term. However, Davis and Lively’s return likely is dependent on the team’s standing in the West. Other than that, on the court, everything has gotten worse — even with Irving healthy — and we’ll take a deep dive into that in the next section. 

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What's Not Working After the Doncic Trade

Everything that could have gone wrong for the Mavericks has gone wrong. Just a week after the trade, Anthony Davis finally made his much-awaited Mavericks debut on February 8. He was dominating the Rockets with 26 points and 16 rebounds in just 31 minutes. However, he left that game with an adductor strain and has been out since then.

This timeline by local Dallas sports reporter Mike Leslie lays out everything that’s happened since the trade, and it’s not pretty. Some lowlights include Grimes’ 44-point game for Philadelphia, a season ticket price increase, and Kyrie Irving’s season-ending ACL injury.

Let’s take a look at some key stats below from pre to post-trade. In pretty much every key offensive metric, Dallas has gotten worse outside of some shooting metrics where they remain roughly in the same range. 

Also shown in this table is how the Mavericks fared after Doncic’s calf injury he picked up on Christmas to give a snapshot how the team performed in that extended run without him on the court. It’s clear that the Mavs are struggling without their All-NBA superstar.

What’s Next For the Mavericks

At the time of writing, the Mavericks are down many key players. All of their key bigs — Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, and Dereck Lively II, two key forwards — P.J. Washington and Caleb Martin, and guards — Jaden Hardy and Kyrie Irving, are currently out. That’s a total of seven players and virtually the entire starting lineup.

They’ve played just below .500 basketball since the trade and have been without Davis since his injury. However, they have now lost Irving for the season, forcing Spencer Dinwiddie into the starting point guard role. Dinwiddie has never averaged more than 21 points in a season, with his best season coming in 2019-20.

Before the injury, Irving was averaging 39.3 minutes per game since the trade. That kind of usage as a 32-year-old point guard who relies on his craftiness with the ball will take a toll and could cause a major injury — which it has. 

Now with Irving done for the season, there’s major questions on whether it’s worth it to bring Davis back onto the court. The Mavericks sit in 10th in the West, occupying the last play-in tournament spot. They have a 2.5-game lead over the Suns who have their own struggles but can still get hot at any moment to get back into the play-in spot.

One thing is for certain: without Doncic, and now Irving, the Mavericks hopes of returning to the NBA Finals again are slim to none.

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With the Mavericks’ season and future hanging in the balance, every game feels like a must-win. Whether Davis can return and salvage the team’s playoff hopes on a new team remains to be seen. That said, it’s clear the Doncic trade has yet to pay off, and things have gone from bad to worse in Dallas.

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Stay locked in on the Playbook throughout the remainder of the NBA season for more basketball analysis for your PrizePicks and NBA DFS Lineups.