The Mavericks journey starts all over again

Six months away for Luka Doncic to create a better version of himself and his team.

If you miss the playoffs, your offseason is incredibly long.

Today is the 200th day since the Dallas Mavericks last played a game. We could easily argue it has been 204 since they played a game in which they were trying to compete — that was an electric night of basketball in a home win on April 5 against the Sacramento Kings, 123-119.

On that evening, with the Mavericks holding on to their playoff hopes by a thread, Kyrie Irving scored 31 and Luka Doncic had 29. The product was spectacular. For a few hours on a Wednesday, exactly 29 weeks ago, it all made sense.

Of course, they took the next 29 weeks off from competitive relevance, because it seldom made sense for most of the other nights when that partnership was getting off the ground.

Now, we find out if they have figured out anything as an organization. From all accounts across the league, nobody is holding their collective breath to see if Kyrie and Luka can figure this out with their new friends.

Dallas has the eight-best league odds and is 25-to-1 to win an NBA Championship this season. Doncic starts his sixth season which is his age-24 campaign. This is usually where things begin to stabilize and provide direction.

The basketball superstar narrative is the one where one man can raise a franchise all the way to the top. But only if the team and star can figure out how to untangle the string at a high speed.

And boy, have they tried to untangle the mess of 2022-23. The year before was a huge step forward, the regular season smashed through the 50-win barrier and all the way to the conference finals. Playoff conquests of Utah and Phoenix provided a month of national admiration for what was happening in Dallas. Everything was on time and the building of Doncic’s résumé made him one of the favorites entering his fifth season to be the NBA MVP and perhaps figure out the next step to a championship.

Yet, these stories are made more interesting because there is always adversity. We can hardly find a single career narrative in basketball superstar history where there isn’t a wall. The weaknesses of the collective group, perhaps even their very best player are exposed and exploited. For the prince that was promised, he may literally be finding difficulty excelling for the first time since he was a boy.

Luka Doncic was wearing it on his face last year. His joy was gone. He was dealing with failure and doubt. It didn’t break him, but you could tell he was fine with taking a break.

To me, that is the story of this 2023-24.

How personally did Luka take last season?

Because, if he is what we think he is, this season is going to be wonderful as he reveals the answers he found in the mirror.

In this space, Doncic is the most fascinating topic that will be discussed when we are able to write about Mavericks here at #Sturmstack.

He is the most fascinating athlete our city employs presently and probably the most interesting since his predecessor, Dirk Nowitzki, decided to admit we had arrived at the end of his watch. The symmetry of their one shared season swelled our hearts with pride as a torch was passed. Oh, what the future could hold!

Our approach to covering this NBA team is based on the actions and attitudes of its superstar, which admittedly often makes a segment of the readership uncomfortable. They will defend him valiantly with shields that deflect to others. It would seem that placing blame on him might push him to go elsewhere, so they look for lesser figures to critique.

Maybe if we blame Dwight Powell or Tim Hardaway, we can keep Doncic in Dallas longer, I guess?

“It is the franchise’s fault they have not surrounded him with enough talent!”

“It is the league’s fault that he doesn’t get the calls he deserves!”

“It is his teammates fault that they don’t take his perfect passes and produce more buckets!”

We have heard it all and will hear it again.

But, this sport is not about excuses. It is about conquering. And to this point, we have seen the smiles and shrugs when things come easily. His joy is apparent when things are going his team’s way, but too often, there is frustration that seldom increases, but frequently decreases.

This, unfortunately eats into his resolve and his performance. It also invites opponents to attempt to trigger frustrations and allow him to take himself out of key moments. This was best seen, again, in September when Canada was able to drive him crazy with Dillon Brooks and friends. Before long, he had been ejected for arguing with the referees over multiple calls he believed he deserved. Again.

“Playing for the national team, it's a lot of emotions. A lot of times I don't control myself, which I've been having problems with,” Doncic said. “But you know, the referees told one of the guys they're not going to call a foul on him because he's coming at us. I think this is not fair. I know I complained a lot, but I don't think it's fair. They've been playing very physical with me, but if you say that, it's not fair.”

Sometimes being right about what is fair or not causes our hero to lose the plot. One can not oversee the management and reviews of the league’s officiating crew and also play the game to the very best of their ability simultaneously.

In my opinion, Luka sacrificed one for the other too many times last season.

The Mavericks took a gigantic step backwards in 2022-23 and saw their record drop 14 games. From 52 wins and playoff success to 38 wins and a vacation that started on Easter. To have one of the very best players on planet at the age of 24 and to still not be one of the 20 NBA teams to play after Easter is flat-out inexcusable.

The franchise should take that personally and so should Luka Doncic – because it is his story that is being written.

Now, again, I expect a good segment of readers to take this sort of discussion as not understanding the game properly and all of the “real issues with this roster building and taking advantage of what Luka allows.”

But, I submit no amount of players who can hit corner-3’s will fix the emotional weaknesses their talisman refuses to face. We all realize how rare a talent he is and we must not step on his beautiful toes. I have heard it all and it strikes me as tiresome.

This sport, like almost no other sport that we follow, responds to the influential tone setting of its best player. How personally offended he gets when he knows he should be better. Because when he is at his best, he puts the team in a position to conquer anyone. I believe Doncic sacrifices his best too often for a myriad of understandable, yet irrelevant reasons. This is a tough league and it puts its best players through a meat grinder to find out if you actually are the chosen one. Through it all, you find your biggest obstacle is looking back at you in the mirror.

We have seen it time and time again. If Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James all had to go through this education that took years of public humiliation, why should we believe that Doncic would not be forced on a similar journey? The only difference is that this one is our beautiful boy and we don’t want anyone to say mean things about our guy.

Our guy had wonderful individual statistics again in 2023, but it also felt like empty calories.

His resolve has dissipated since that 2022 playoff run. And to me, that is what this season is all about — do you look for the easy way out and find a situation where the circumstances are easier?

Or do you dare to do what every champion in this sport has had to do? Look in the mirror, take defeat personally, and come back bigger, better, and stronger?

In the case of Doncic, that might mean more focused, more steely refusal to lose the plot. He needs to develop an armor where opponents know they cannot get inside his head. It has been locked down and there is no pathway to expose a weakness for a lesser opponent. In some ways, it feels like Master Yoda is explaining to Luke the value in controlling emotions:

“Remember, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware. Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.”

That list of MJ, Kobe, and LeBron did not include countless others. The Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, and Dwight Howard types who were famous and all-stars. The group who also were asked to go through the process and were found to be lacking the final details to be identified as the best of the best. The very best player on the best team in the league. There is nothing wrong with that second tier of NBA superstar, because you still make a few hundred million dollars, still get lifelong fame, and even a place in the Hall of Fame.

Nothing wrong with those careers at all.

But, we will always wonder if they had a little more to give with just a few small alterations that could only be found internally. They became satisfied that it was not their fault. It was a coach, an owner, bad luck, or bad teammates.

But, you don’t ascend to that Dirk Nowitzki tier – that tier of the unforgettable champion, who achieves legendary status. The one who put the franchise on his back through remarkable adversity, significant humbling, and personal sacrifice and ultimately took the final steps to the top of the mountain to plant the flag that will never be forgotten.

That isn’t something that can be bought or achieved easily. It can only be done by the very best of the very best deciding that good enough is not close to good enough. And you only get there by running into a wall too many times, and deciding that you can get 2 percent better if you only look in that mirror and strengthen the few small weaknesses that remain.

That is my 2023-24 Dallas Mavericks preview.

Elsewhere, you can find strong previews that will tell you about Grant Williams, Derrick Jones Jr, and the next level for Josh Green. Don’t get me wrong, that is all fascinating. Also, can they get Kyrie and Luka do to something on the court that is more advanced and impossible to defend than “your turn/my turn” offense. It is worth exploring, too.

But, for me, this story is the story of young Luka Doncic from Slovenia. First of his kind and we believe the conquerer of worlds after he developed into the most unique player this league has seen in generations.

He is currently at the point of the game where you either turn the difficulty down and go somewhere where less will be asked (and blamed) of you. Or decide that the only mountain worth climbing is the one almost nobody else can even consider climbing.

I know which choice I hope he has made. 2023-24 will give us plenty of insight on that decision, because his actions will speak so much louder than his words ever can.