Morning Coffee: Mavericks go all-in and lose with Doncic trade

The rebuild is a constant theme in the NBA.

It’s not unusual to see a handful of franchises hit the reset button at the same time in any given season.

The thing is, most rebuilds begin once a team’s championship window has been slammed shut.

It’s difficult to comprehend the idea of a team hitting the restart button when they are still a legitimate contender.

I can understand why Dallas Mavericks fans are having such a difficult time accepting the decision to trade one of the league’s best and brightest players to a rival franchise in the middle of a title window.

Luka Doncic was the city’s biggest superstar.

With Doncic, the Mavericks were built to win now and built to win in the future.

How could this possibly happen?

This isn’t about bad luck - it’s about bad decisions.

Success can create the illusion of comfort, and comfort can make you blind to issues that must be addressed.

The problems you ignore today become the disasters you can’t escape tomorrow.

When the ultimate plot twist unfolded last week, the players and the fans, coaches and agents, analysts and commentators all shared the same sentiment.

How could this possibly happen?

One week later, we’ve turned the page to the next chapter in the trade fallout, and it seems like the script is about to play out exactly the way we all expected.

The Lakers are trending in the right direction as a potential contender with Doncic.

On the flip side, the Mavericks are suddenly trending in the wrong direction, and it’s easy to understand why their fans are concerned that things could spiral quickly.

The writing was on the wall when the Mavericks decided to trade Doncic to the Lakers.

Whatever happens next, nobody should be surprised.

All things considered, it’s not hard to see why Mavericks fans are concerned that things could get a lot worse before they get better in Dallas.

This is the Morning Coffee for Tuesday February 11^th, 2025.

Mavericks Go All-In and Lose with Doncic Trade

The Mavericks opened at +900 as the fourth choice to win the NBA championship at FanDuel in the summer.

At the time, Dallas was the reigning Western Conference champion, led by a perennial MVP contender still in his prime, with the opportunity to build around the same core that carried them to the NBA Finals.

Most rival GMs around the association would have jumped at the chance to swap rosters.

Remember, only the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and the Minnesota Timberwolves had shorter odds to win the NBA title at FanDuel.

Fast-forward eight months later, the Mavericks outlook has completely flipped following the most shocking trade in NBA history.

The trade reaction has been fierce across the board.

Nine teams have shorter odds to win the title than Dallas.

Their former perennial MVP contender plays for one of them.

And suddenly, the Mavericks roster has been hit hard with some notable injuries.

In the immediate aftermath of the Doncic trade, the Mavericks odds to win the NBA championship jumped from +3200 to +3500 at FanDuel.

That number has since ballooned to +4800.

Dallas has dropped four of its last six games overall.

The Mavericks led by double-digits in two of those four losses.

More importantly, it looks like Dallas will be without one of its core pieces for an extended period after it was revealed the Anthony Davis could miss up to a month due to a groin injury.

P.J. Washington is already dealing with an ankle injury.

Last night, Daniel Gafford was helped off the court after he suffered a knee sprain in the second quarter of an overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings.

The Mavericks are now just a half-game up on the Kings and the Golden State Warriors for the eighth seed in the Western Conference standings.

The Phoenix Suns are also just one game back of them.

When Doncic was dealt to the Lakers, Dallas GM Nico Harrison said he believed that the trade “positioned ourselves to win now and also win the future”.

One week later, Davis is out indefinitely, Gafford and Washington are sidelined, and the Mavericks are up to +116 to make the playoffs at FanDuel.

As if the team’s situation wasn’t bad enough, the Lakers cruised to a lopsided 132-113 win over the Utah Jazz in Luka Doncic’s debut last night.

And Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki was in attendance.

Doncic scored 14 points with five rebounds and four assists in 24 minutes.

Head coach J.J. Redick acknowledged before the game that Doncic would be on a minute restriction.

The Lakers still have a shot to be a top four seed in the Western Conference, but regardless of where they end up in the regular season standings, the priority for LA is to get healthy and develop some chemistry for when it matters the most in the postseason.

The Lakers have gone from +4000 to +2200 as the sixth choice to win the NBA championship at FanDuel.

Only the Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, and the Nuggets have shorter odds to win the title this morning.

It’s difficult to downplay how dominant Doncic was during last year’s NBA Finals run with the Mavericks.

It’s also exciting to think about how a motivated Doncic could perform this postseason – for Lakers fans, that is.

Meanwhile, as if the fan protests weren’t bad enough, Harrison has reportedly been subjected to death threats and racist remarks since the trade.

The Mavericks fan base is furious and rightfully so, but the situation has quickly escalated, and certain lines have clearly been crossed.

The club’s short and long-term championship outlook took a massive hit with the Doncic trade, and as a result Dallas has gone from a top three choice to win the NBA to barely a top 10 choice in less than one full season.

The Mavericks have serious problems.

It won’t help that they’ve already traded the solution to Los Angeles.

Some deals shake things up for a season.

The Doncic trade will shake up an entire basketball era.

While Lakers fans celebrate a jackpot, Mavericks fans are still coming to terms with the fallout of a trade that has hit them hard.

Unfortunately for Mavericks fans, there’s a good chance the situation could get worse before it gets better.