Reviewing and reliving the 2021-22 season for the Dallas Mavericks

The 2021-22 season for the Dallas Mavericks ended up being a whole lot of fun. It wasn’t ALWAYS fun, and in fact, it started out very strangely. With Luka Doncic looking like the final boss in a video game in the Olympics, we all expected him to show up in shape and ready to mow down teams. He didn’t, and when the Mavericks played poor to mediocre basketball to start the year, things felt dicey.

Then COVID hit the Mavericks, along with a lingering Luka Doncic ankle injury. It wasn’t fun or interesting to watch Dallas Mavericks basketball for a significant chunk of December. Things bottomed out in a late December loss to the Sacramento Kings. Then, things turned around. After 2022 turned over the Mavericks would only lose 12 more times in the regular season.

When Tim Hardaway suffered what would eventually be a season-ending injury, the Mavericks made moves to replace his scoring punch with that of Spencer Dinwiddie and they did so by trading away what was once considered a cornerstone piece in Kristaps Porzingis. While we all initially saw it as a step back, the Mavericks kept on rolling.

They rolled on and on. And, despite a calf injury to Luka Doncic in the final regular season game, the Mavericks rolled straight through the Jazz, then the Suns, and were eventually stopped by the Golden State Warriors in the Conference finals.

It was a wonderful, weird, extremely entertaining season. Considering our staff somewhat wanted to fast forward to the playoffs, I don’t think I could imagine a more interesting, varied season in which the Mavericks proceeded along the path to improvement. Progress is not a straight line, but once Dallas found their stride they really went for it.

Josh Bowe and I discuss all of this and more in the latest episode of Mavs Moneyball After Dark. Though I usually tend to add the latest relevant show to game posts, I haven’t been as consistent about making posts for our podcasts. While I’d hope all of you would subscribe, maybe regular listening is your thing, which I totally get. You can click the Apple podcasts embed above (Spotify is being strange at the moment) or click below on any of the links to get taken to your favorite player. I’ll probably be doing more posts like this; we’ve done hundreds of podcasts this season.

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