State of the Dallas Mavericks off-season, so far

When the Dallas Mavericks made the Western Conference Finals, Josh Bowe wrote a particularly fantastic column where he ended with the following note of reminder: “Instead of worrying about what can happen tomorrow, it’s time to appreciate what the Mavericks can do today.” That tomorrow has arrived in the form of free agency and while it projected to be a rather straight forward affair, there’s been one large bump that changes the impact of every other move. Let’s review:

• Before the draft, Dallas agreed to trade their 26th pick, along with Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, and Trey Burke to the Houston Rockets for forward Christian Wood. The trade became official on draft night due to the Stepien rule.
• On draft night, Dallas acquired the 37th pick and selected Jaden Hardy.
• Jalen Brunson agreed to a four year, $104 million deal with the New York Knicks.
• Dallas signed JaVale McGee using most of their Tax Payer Midlevel exception. The other portion is expected to go to Jaden Hardy so Dallas can give him a longer deal.
• The Mavericks signed Theo Pinson to a contract, following his run and role as official vibes guy of the roster.
• Did not sign long associated guard and Luka Doncic mentor and national team teammate Goran Dragic, who opted to sign with the Chicago Bulls.
• Guaranteed the contract of Frank Ntilikina today, meaning he is a Dallas Maverick for next season officially.

So now the Mavericks are who they are, with one remaining roster spot open. For anyone waiting on any more signings, a good bet is that anything happening next will happen after anything between the Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, or both. Realistically, the Mavericks have no direct means of getting involved in trades for either player, but perhaps could factor in as a third team. But seeing as those two players are in a bit of a stalemate right now with the franchise, it might be a while. Kevin Durant has no leverage and Kyrie Irving has no market.

But even if Dallas isn’t involved in anything for either of those two players, they could still look to make an addition or trade after that hold up in the market settles. If the Maverick off-season all feels a bit unfinished at the moment... that may be because it is. After all, I’m not of the belief that offensive formula the Mavericks found last season with multiple ball handlers and three point shooters is something the coaching staff wants to move away from quite like this (the Mavericks have two players capable of playing NBA minutes at point guard right now).

So, it might be a while before anything happens. We’re all rather addicted to the fast free agency cycle but sometimes, it just takes a while for things to pan out. Free agency kicked of Thursday afternoon at five and as of this writing it’s been about five full days. There’s still plenty of time for something else to happen for the Mavericks.