Goal for Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic should not be an NBA championship
Luka Doncic said during quarantine he played a lot of sports, including soccer and tennis, which makes you wonder just good he would be if he actually tried anything other than basketball.
The Dallas Mavericks All-Star forward said Thursday that he never hesitated to join the NBA’s re-start Orlando bubble, which some guys, including his own teammates, are opting out.
The NBA and its players are pushing forward to give us sports, and make themselves money, despite growing indications that this will not go according to plan.
The goal here is not to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy with Mickey Mouse in an empty arena, but simply to avoid a major injury and prepare for the start of the 2020-21 NBA season intact.
However this ultimately plays out, it will be entertaining to watch for the simple fact we have never seen anything like it. The train wreck element is always appealing, too.
Other than that, this is not an NBA season. It’s not even the labor-shortened seasons we saw in 1999 or 2011-12.
Go for the title only if it’s convenient, but the “bubble season” is not worth risking much.
The Mavericks remaining eight games of the “regular” season begins on July 31 against the Houston Rockets.
God willing, next season is scheduled to begin on Dec. 1. Of course, the way things are progressing that may be Dec. 1, 2021.
Provided they add a piece or two, preferably a big and a point guard, the Mavericks could be in position next season to make a hard push.
“I’m in good shape,” Doncic said in a Zoom call with the media after his individual practice session at the team’s practice facility in Dallas on Thursday. “I’ll get in better shape when the Orlando games start, but I’m in good shape.”
That’s the priority, to stay that way.
At the time the NBA season stopped, the Mavericks were 40-27 and Doncic ranked sixth in the NBA in scoring. Doncic ranked first in NBA in offensive rating, and the Mavericks did as a team.
He and teammate Kristaps Porzingis were doing what they were supposed to be doing, namely carrying the team offensively.
“We have pretty good chemistry,” Doncic said. “Before the season [stopped] we had good chemistry but we didn’t play many games together. It’s going to keep growing every day.”
The surprise is Tim Hardaway Jr., who with some space provided the legit third scorer this team was not sure it had.
The Mavericks were going to make the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2016. They were likely going to post their first 50-win season since that year.
They were not good enough defensively to make a hard push against the top teams in the West, and Doncic too often found himself having to be everything at all times.
The goal now is for this trio to improve, and emerge from the bubble in tact.
The Mavericks have not won a playoff series since winning an NBA title nine years ago, and if that streak continues this year it’s no loss. The whole season is a wash.
The NBA is coming back, and it will be fun to watch, but for Doncic and the Mavs the goal is not going for a championship, but simply to leave Orlando without injury.
