Folks, the Dallas Mavericks are here. They’re no longer battling through injuries. Some mid-season roster changes have galvanized their roster and made them more versatile defensively. Luka Doncic has firmly put himself in the MVP conversation and Kyrie Irving has proved to be a (happy) perfect Robin to his Batman.
With the playoffs around the corner, the Mavericks have won 7 in a row, 9 of their last 10, and have had the best record in the Western Conference since the trade deadline. That’s helped them climb up the standings from 8th to 5th (with a chance to get to 4th) and so you have to ask the question… can they contend for an NBA championship?
Let’s do a bit of a sniff test.
To be a championship contender, you have to check a few different boxes.
First: the top-end talent.
Every champion since the beginning of time has had a top-tier player in the sport. Doncic checks that box. He also just so happens to be playing the best basketball of his career. He’s putting up over 34 points (1st in the league) and over 9.8 assists (3rd in the league) per game all while shooting a career-best 38% from 3 on over 10 attempts a night. He’s bending defenses to his will and it doesn’t matter what coverage is thrown at him — he will dissect it in his own, methodical, slow-paced way.
Irving, for his part, has adjusted well to his role as the B-side of the Mavericks offense. While Luka conducts and orchestrates, Irving operates in the crevices of Dallas’s high-octane offense. His 3-point shooting off the catch has been potent, knocking down a career-best 41% from behind the arc on over 7 attempts a night, and nearly averaging a 50/40/90 efficiency-wise.