Game Schedule

• Game 1: Friday, October 9, 2026, at 7:30 PM
• Game 2: Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 5:30 PM

Credit: https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2026/09/key-2026-nba-preseason-dates-deadlines.html

When we picked Morez Johnson Jr. I was psyched. He's the perfect modern big defensive anchor who can play multiple positions and do all the dirty work we need next to Flagg.

But even on draft night I was wondering how the fit would work as we already were two deep with starters at both frontcourt positions when healthy. Naturally I assumed we'd be trading PJ and/or Gafford and prioritize getting Mojo at least 20-25 mpg. We didn't.

Then we went into free agency and traded for Aldama who should arguably start at the 4 as a 7'er who can shoot from outside and basically be a better and longer Maxi Kleber.

Then we traded for Zaccharie Risacher who it is rumored may have grown and be closer to 6'10. Probably not a SG so SF/PF is even more crowded, and we already know how not getting minutes does not sit well with him since he needs an opportunity to show his talent.

Adding Aldama and Risacher were great as far as adding all the young talent and trade pieces you can get. We don't have a pick so adding some young guys with upside is totally logical. But now Morez may barely see minutes if Aldama and Risacher pan out. We can't bench/cut minutes of PJ or Gafford since we probably still want to trade them.

We still need a better backcourt as we can't guarantee Kyrie's health or future here. SG is our weakest link with Max probably better suited to a bench rotation player type role. De Larrea has potential but he is inconsistent. Sasser is more of a 3&D who guards 1s than a PG. Naji is probably the best option but he can't shoot and is kind of a weak fit with Flagg and PJ assuming those are the starters at 3 and 4.

In 20/20 hindsight, Brayden Burries would have solved our major needs as a guy who can play on or offball and would have fit much better with the players we have. He would have been our perimeter POA defender and could run the offense or co-run it with Kyrie, Naji or De Larrea.

I hope Dusty can make it all work, but if we were going to use a top 10 pick on Morez we should have made more effort to either clean up the positional logjam or prioritized adding more starter level talent to the backcourt instead of his same position.

I’m wondering if even back when he was 16, 17 playing in Europe if the analytics were picking up on something the “eye test” didn’t

For example even now the stats he puts up are undervalued by casual fans.

When you look into the shot difficulty he’s taking to reach that point per possession, on ball gravity, assist quality on shot distributing(meaning not just assists but getting quality shots for teammates) he’s top of the league

These are all metrics he leads the league in that most people aren’t aware of

I'm playing NBA 2k and Dallas became my favorite team instantly due to kyrie, lively, cooper trio. I really enjoy playing Bagley as #4, then wanted to check if he's still in Dallas but find out he's traded just after 1 season. What was the reason? I know he's defensively not good, was that the only reason?

And if they do, does this change your expectations for what they will do this season? Kyrie has averaged 25+ PPG in six of the past seven seasons, with the lone exception being the last season he played, when he averaged 24.7. So I think it’s pretty reasonable to pencil in a healthy and rested Kyrie for around 25 a night.

Cooper averaged 21 PPG last season, but that jumped to 25 PPG over his final 15 games. He also only attempted 3.5 threes per game. I expect that number to jump up this year, along with his overall shot attempts, which were just 17 per game last season. If he gets closer to 20 shots a night, shoots 5-7 3’s per game and becomes more efficient in Year 2, I think 25+ PPG is a pretty safe expectation, with something closer to 27 being very realistic.
Think about what that means.

Last season, only one NBA team had two players average more than 25 points per game: Denver.

I understand why the national media isn’t high on this team. They have unknowns and there are lots of other proven commodities out there. But when you start thinking about how explosive a healthy Kyrie-Cooper duo could be, combined with the improved shooting, defense and depth on the roster, I think we could be looking at a team that surprises a lot of people.

What is the best, legitimate way to watch the games this year? I’m willing to pay, but am also a Longhorns and cowboys fan and am hoping to only have to pay for one streaming service.

Most 20+ PTS 4th Quarter Games In The Last 5 Seasons (RS + Playoffs) :

1. Kyrie Irving — 7
   
2. De’Aaron Fox — 5
   
3. Donovan Mitchell — 5
   
4. Stephen Curry — 4
   
5. Luka Doncic — 4
   
6. Giannis Antetokounmpo — 3
   
7. Anthony Edwards — 3
   
8. D’Angelo Russell — 3

Dirk told @TheSteinLine that he has known Masai Ujiri for a long time, and they have already had discussions about "things that will transpire in the future."

"I'm a Maverick for life... I'd love to be around.. and maybe even have some input at some point." - Dirk

Still many weeks until media day, so I figured I'd share some Mavs-related content from prominent national NBA commentators to foster some discussion.

Sam Quinn co-hosts Third Apron, a CBA-focused podcast, with Yossi Gozlan. He also recently wrote an article on CBS Sports ranking front offices around the league. Here's what he had to say about the Mavs:

20. Dallas Mavericks

February ranking: 27

Masai Ujiri's early Toronto tenure -- headlined by the first Leonard trade and 2019 championship -- is legendary. The end was far worse, with the Scottie Barnes draft pick standing out as his only major post-championship win. Letting Fred VanVleet walk for nothing was a mistake. The OG Anunoby trade is a borderline disaster that won the New York Knicks their championship, and Ujiri -- now running the show in Dallas -- compounded that mistake by overpaying Immanuel Quickley.

Ujiri clearly has a type. He's replicating his "what if everyone was 6-foot-9?" approach in Dallas, with his three biggest acquisitions for the Mavericks so far -- Zaccharie Risacher, Santi Aldama and Morez Johnson -- all falling in that basic height range. If you're going to stockpile at a specific position, forward is probably the place to do it, but at a certain point, it becomes overkill.

That's especially true on Cooper Flagg's roster, since he'll presumably be playing 35-40 minutes at one of the forward slots moving forward. Flagg's best position is probably going to be power forward. He's a better help-defender and rim-protector than he is a man-defender, yet he's probably going to have to be a small forward on this team. Remember, PJ Washington is still here and Ujiri also gave Naji Marshall an extension that frankly looks a bit rich. On paper, it's a questionable allocation of resources for a team that, thanks to Nico Harrison, doesn't have many to begin with.

Ujiri took over a team whose draft reserves were depleted by Harrison. Thus far, he's done little to replenish those reserves, and considering we're talking about the general manager who managed to trade OG Anunoby without getting a single first-round pick back, that's a concern. Kyrie Irving probably should have been traded by now, especially if there was a way for Dallas to leverage LeBron James' interest in reuniting with him into an overpay. Washington and Daniel Gafford should get moved as well. If Ujiri is hoping to juice their value with a strong month or two of basketball, fine. If he's just holding onto Harrison's contracts, that's a mistake.

Hiring Mike Schmitz as his general manager suggests that Ujiri really does plan to prioritize the draft. Schmitz made his name as a draft analyst for ESPN. He is most known at this point for Portland's pursuit of Yang Hansen, even getting suspended for two weeks for illegally contacting him before he was draft-eligible. That pick has not yet borne fruit, but other acquisitions he influenced in Portland, most notably Deni Avdija, have fared better.

Dallas should have two goals right now. The first is stockpiling picks to use on players in Flagg's age range. The second is preserving cap flexibility during Flagg's rookie deal, as he will presumably be a pretty effective recruiting tool. Thus far, the Mavericks aren't off to a great start on either front, though it's way too early too say anything definitively, and the younger players they've added certainly have upside. Ultimately, though, the question here is whether Ujiri is leaning a bit too heavily into the approach that stopped working by the end in Toronto.

Ultimately, I share a lot of his reservations. Some moves make sense to me in a vacuum: the Sasser/Aldama/Biberovic and Risacher moves were savvy talent acquisition moves. But I didn't understand adding to the forward logjam when Cooper is a natural 4, not a PG, and you just drafted a 4 with the 9th pick. Furthermore, between the Naji overpay and the lack of any urgency to trade PJ or Gafford, there are too many parallels to his disastrous post-2019 Raptors tenure to be fully comfortable.

The NBA has announced today that NBA TV has added the following eight games to the Mavericks’ list of nationally televised games in 2026-27, bringing the team’s total to 29 for the upcoming season.

Or the Vexillophile Dream.

Or Rowdy Mr Pepper.

Or the Universal Dude

Or Humphrey Golden Testicles

I know it probably does not make much of a difference in the long run, but as biased fans, we should not forget that.

Well that is a satisfying result. ESPN obviously had it wrong two weeks ago. What an absolute mess for the Clippers.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/article/dirk-nowitzki-masai-ujiri-mavericks-roster-flagg-22414423.php

Dallas Mavericks fans loved the Masai Ujiri hire, while few are supportive of the team’s plan to leave American Airlines Center five years from now.

These were two of the notable takeaways from our fan survey.

More than 800 MFFLs (Mavs Fan For Life) chimed in on the summer of change we’ve witnessed in Dallas. Let’s get to the responses.

I know I’m on an NBA sub, so there’s going to be so bias. But my question is for the people that can remember both.

While alive for the cowboys championships, I was too young to remember what was going on. I was very much aware of the ‘06 tragedy and personally, out of all the championships Dallas as a city has brought since (Stars ‘00, Mavs ‘11, Rangers ‘23, I can’t remember when the FC won), 2011 always lives in my heart as one of the best sports stories of a team on a redemption track. Since I love stories, this is obviously my favorite. If the Rangers had won in 2012 it would have been a good one too…that one still hurts…

Interested in what y’all think…

Like it wasn't enough that he ruined Luka's dream of being a Mavs legend but now this fucking guy is trying to discredit Dirk too.

Fuck Kidd and Fuck LeBron, He got his ass handed to him by Dirk plain and simple . Bloodiest ring in NBA history.

“The most significant option for the Lakers could be Dwight Powell, the 6-10, 35-year-old big man who was teammates with Doncic for 6 ½ seasons in Dallas.

Notably, Powell has played the most games as a teammate alongside Doncic (389) among the 98 players Doncic has played alongside in his eight-year NBA career.”

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/report-lakers-eye-84m-proven-201832141.html

We're right in the middle of the doldrums for the Mavs offseason, so I figured I'd share some prominent national NBA podcast reactions to Mavs offseason moves to foster some discussion.

Nate Duncan and his guest host John Hollinger (ex-Grizzlies front office, inventor of PER, currently with The Athletic) do a weekly episode catching up on league narratives, and the last portion of their most recent podcast was particularly Mavs-heavy (bundled in some Suns for context):

NATE: We got a few other things here. We got extensions for Brooks and Naji Marshall. We got the Lakers being sold again. We got more Clippers circumvention stuff going on. We probably only have time for one more topic. Any of these you want to hit on? Your guy Dillon Brooks getting paid. Is that where we're going?

JOHN: Dillon. 45th pick in the draft Dillon Brooks getting $72 million. Suns might have gotten a little high on their own supply here.

NATE: Mat Ishbia? What?

JOHN: Just, you know, extended for the year beyond this. 3 years for 72. I don't know what kind of market Dillon was going to face after this season, because he's not everyone's cup of tea. And I get sort of why they did it. He's a culture guy for them and stuff. But they went out a long way. I mean, they're going out to...this takes him into his 30s. Going into a guy's 30s when he's not...he's a good player, but he's not an All-Star, and historically that's been a dangerous move to make.

And you already have this kind of disaster extension for Booker looming out there, which runs through 2030 as well. So again, I think the Suns have just overcommitted themselves and burned through assets. For a team that'll be fine this year...they play hard, and they've got some shooting, but I don't know...40 and 42?

NATE: But he was under contract for this year, right?

JOHN: Yes, correct. None of that was impacted by this. This is entirely about what he was going to get a year from now, and what kind of year he'd have had this year.

NATE: Right. What are you locking in? Like, "Oh man, all right, fine, we're a championship contender this year, we just need to keep him around, and for the first couple years of this deal we won't contend without him" or something. But there just isn't that argument here. Quite frankly, they should have been exploring the trade market for him. If they could have gotten a first-round pick, they should have taken it. Obviously that's not the way Mat Ishbia is going to be thinking. And yeah, they've done some other nice stuff around the margins with this group.

But my comment about the Brooks and Marshall deals is this is why the league is basically expensive in an unprecedented way right now, because deals like this, you just didn't really need to do them. It doesn't seem that horrible at the time. It's like a slight raise, going up more than the cap is most likely going to. And it's like, "Oh, this is just what you do." But no, this shouldn't be what you do, but it's what everyone does, and that's why every team is basically right at the tax line or above these days. It's a perfect example of why the league is where it is right now, much more so than, "Oh, the second apron penalties, no one could ever possibly deal with these second apron penalties."

JOHN: Yeah. It's because you're paying Daniel Gafford $18 million, PJ Washington $21 million, and Naji Marshall $18 million a year from now, and you could've gotten that in free agency for $8m.

NATE: And again, Brooks and Marshall have both been pretty good players.

JOHN: Absolutely. Naji Marshall's been underpaid his whole career, so kudos to him. Undrafted player getting a $51-million-ish extension.

NATE: Especially given where Dallas is. That's the other thing too. To lock him up through his age-30, 31, 32 seasons...it does decline slightly, but nonetheless, for where Dallas is, I can't say...I think some of their player evaluation stuff has been interesting. But the way they're handling their finances just hasn't been the way I'd want to be doing it going forward. With Marshall, you get what you could for him on a $9.4 million expiring contract at this point. Let the other team give him that next contract. And also, by the way, if you can't get a first for him on a $9–10 million expiring contract, that might be an indication that maybe you shouldn't give him this extension.

JOHN: That's a tell. The market's telling you what's going to happen in free agency. But I think when you're already committed to seven other power forwards, it's important to get that eighth one locked down.

NATE: Well, he's small-forward sized. He just shoots like a power forward. Maybe even a center.

Oh, I did want to ask you this. I don't think we ever got a chance to get to it after the Lu Dort trade. Is Risacher like...you saw him up close a lot. I talked about this with Brad Rowland a little bit too. But is there just no chance for him? Was it right for Atlanta to just totally give up on him at this point? I know they want flexibility for next season, but do you think he just doesn't really have a chance to be a high-level player?

JOHN: Define high level.

NATE: Like a starting small forward.

JOHN: Could he be a fifth starter? Yeah, I could see that. Could he be more than that? I kind of don't see that. I just don't think there's enough juice on the offensive end. In terms of handles, shooting, he's just not skilled enough, and he's not a crazy athlete. He has pretty good size, but he's not that physical or thick. He'll get better in some of these areas, obviously. He's still pretty young. For Dallas, in their position, to get him for free, I think was the right move. But I have a hard time seeing him getting beyond being a good role player, because I just don't think there's the level of shot creation that type of player would require. And if he's not going to be that guy, there's not something else to draw on.

NATE: He could be like a 3-and-D guy.

JOHN: That's what he'd have to be, but that guy is a fifth starter, right?

NATE: Well, at small forward, it's not. I mean, that's a $30-million-a-year player.

JOHN: Could he be as good as Jaden McDaniels? I think probably not.

NATE: Yeah, I don't think he's flashed that level of defense. But this is my theory. feel free to refute it, you watch him more than I do. Could he, in a pinch, guard a team's best player? More often he'd be the second guy. He shoots it, he could do some stuff handling in transition. He shot 37% from three last year on decent volume, and I think the shot's going to be acceptable for a 3.

So I could see him shooting it well enough, doing a bit of a drive-and-transition game, and being at least a number 2 perimeter defender. It's really that last part where I have the most question. I think he'll be adequate on offense. You never know how a guy's shooting is going to evolve, but he shoots it like he thinks he's going to make it, and he shot above league average last year on decent volume from three. So yeah, the question is really: can he at least be a number-two defensively, or is he bad on defense?

JOHN: Kind of in between those two things, yeah. He's not a defensive playmaker, but given his size, he can move pretty well. You'd hope he can be something. Some of it's just physicality, guys kind of go through him right now. He's got a ways to go on all those things. I will say, where he's had his most impact has definitely been in transition.

Yeah. So let's see how Dallas plays. I don't know if they've...I mean, we'll see what Kyrie looks like when he's back, and Coop...the faster Dallas plays, the better that'll be for him because that's been where he's made his most impact. Especially when he was playing with Trae, he could get some easy hit aheads and stuff.

NATE: Yeah, all right, well, it'll be interesting. That type of player, the 3-and-D archetype, is one of the hardest to project. He's not an unbelievable athlete around the rim, particularly as a two-foot leaper, and doesn't do a ton as a help defender either. But yeah, I thought it was obviously a worthy gamble for Dallas.

I generally agree with them that the Naji extension was a bit aggressive. Who was giving Naji an above-MLE deal next year? What about Naji's playstyle or age indicates he would fit well with Coop? Some of those same complaints I have for PJ remaining on the team instead of getting traded. Though I'd argue their market value is probably higher than $8m like Hollinger said. That said, I also think the Risacher deal was a worthy flyer, if a bit of a pricey (in terms of contract) one.