The conference finals are officially underway.
Four teams will vie for the chance to compete for a championship, and while this year’s NBA final four doesn’t feature the Mavericks, there aren’t many degrees of separation from participating teams to the defending Western Conference champions — a title Dallas has owned for nearly the last year.
The small group of contenders are connected to the Mavericks, both directly and indirectly.
Jalen Brunson, who joined the Mavericks alongside Luka Doncic in 2018, is the undisputed leader of the New York Knicks and the reason why they’re in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years.
The Indiana Pacers are led by Rick Carlisle, who spent 13 seasons as head coach of the Mavericks and led the franchise to its lone title in 2011.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves were steppingstones in Dallas’ electric run toward last season’s NBA Finals.
That isn’t the case this year since the Mavericks failed to qualify for the postseason because of injury misfortune and lack of continuity stemming from the Doncic trade. However, the consolation prize was landing the No. 1 pick and winning the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes in the May 12 draft lottery.
How far away are the Mavericks from returning to the conference finals and being in the mix for another championship? That’s what we’ll examine here.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said in a recent interview on the DLLS Mavs podcast that he loves the physicality from this season’s playoffs. When asked if the conference finalists reaffirm the Mavericks’ newfound philosophy on size and defense, Kidd gave a brief breakdown of what Indiana, Oklahoma City, Minnesota and New York have in common.
“You gotta have stars and length,” Kidd said. “You have to be able to not just rely on one guy. Being able to have depth. Your role players have to play as stars. We believe that our roster has that when you look at P.J. [Washington] and the things he’s done since the trade. [Daniel] Gafford. Role players that play extremely high level.”
Depth is important to any team striving to win a championship.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s newly minted Most Valuable Player, and Jalen Williams aren’t the only reason why the Thunder learned from last season’s second-round exit to Dallas and defeated Denver in seven games to advance to the conference finals. There are many others, from Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace, who’ve made key contributions during the postseason.
Anthony Edwards may be the head of the snake for Minnesota, but he’s received a helping hand from Prestonwood Christian-ex Julius Randle, along with the likes of Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Mike Conley.
Indiana may very well be the deepest teams left in the playoffs. Sure Tyrese Haliburton has led the way, leading a couple of incredible comeback runs over Milwaukee and Cleveland, but the Pacers aren’t reliant on his performance solely. Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner (Euless Trinity, Texas), Bennedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard and several others are the reason why the Pacers are four wins from the NBA Finals.
Lets not forget about the elephant in the room. Any team left at this point of the season has benefited from having a healthy roster when it matters most.
Look no further than the Knicks as the perfect example of this. New York’s training staff, led by Casey Smith, won the NBATA Athletic Training Staff of the Year award one year after the Knicks hired him away from Dallas entering the season. Heather Mau, who was also formerly a member of the Mavericks’ training staff, is also on Smith’s staff in New York.
Dallas has a couple of positions to fill on its training staff, including head athletic trainer and athletic performance director, because Dionne Calhoun and Keith Belton were relieved of their duties earlier this month.
The Mavericks were ravaged by injuries while Doncic was still a member of the team, but that misfortune seemingly went to another level once the team acquired Anthony Davis, who made a valiant late-season return to help will Dallas earn a spot in the play-in tournament.
Dallas will have the benefit of a clean slate next season. Well, mostly. Kyrie Irving, who is rehabbing a torn ACL, is the only player expected to be sidelined by the time training camp begins. Once Irving returns, only then will general manager Nico Harrison have a chance to fully realize his vision for this revamped era in Mavericks history.
Kidd is confident the Mavericks will be back in the mix to compete for a title soon. With Flagg as the consensus top pick for the Mavericks, along with the team’s bevy of versatile two-way veterans led by Davis, there’s a realistic chance that Dallas’ playoff hiatus could be a brief one.
”We truly believe that we’re built to win the championship going forward and we’re excited about not just this summer, but next season,” Kidd said.
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