By Dorothy J. Gentry
Sports Editor
Photo: Dorothy J. Gentry
On Friday morning, four days after they lost the 2024 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, the Dallas Mavericks GM and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison reflected on the team’s year during his end-of-the season news conference.
“We’re proud of the way the season went,” Harrison said. “I really want everyone to come back 15 to 20% better – mind, body and spirit – and I think if we do that, we’re going to be proud of the results for the next year.”
To be fair, the team has much to be proud of from this year. The Mavs finished with a record of 50-32 this season After making the playoffs as the No. 5 seed, the Mavs went through three rounds of playoffs series with tough teams the Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder featuring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who was second in league MVP votes – and the Minnesota Timberwolves – who surprisingly disposed of the 2023 champion Denver Nuggets before meeting the Mavs in the Western Conference Finals.
The Mavs won all three series, the Western Conference championship and landed in the NBA Finals, much to everyone’s surprise. The Celtics won the Finals 4 games to 1 last Monday. Harrison conceded that the Mavs just ran out of gas against the Celtics after three challenging playoff series.
“I really love our core. I feel like we were really in the playoffs since March 7th,” Harrison said. “We were fighting just to get into the playoffs and after a while you have that grind from March 7th, then we had three really tough series.
“After a while…we didn’t have the same juice in the Finals that we did in the first few rounds and it just wore on us,” he said. “But give those guys (Celtics) credit, they had to go through their trials and tribulations to be where they are and they were the better team for sure.”
The Team’s Core
Harison said the team’s top seven or eight players who saw playing time in Coach Jason Kidds’ rotation, will likely stay intact. These include Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II, P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford.
While not giving any hint of possible new additions to the team this offseason, Harrison did praise the team’s current roster construction.
“I think we have the pieces. I think we just need to get better ourselves,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, our front office staff has looked to make it better and we’ll continue to do that. But the core is intact.
“If you look at the top seven or eight players that really played, I don’t see anything happening with that.”
Offseason Priority No. 1 – Re-sign Derrick Jones Jr.
One of those top seven or eight players Harrison mentioned is eight-year NBA veteran Derrick Jones Jr. A defensive minded forward, Jones signed with the Mavs as a free agent last summer on a minimum deal – despite opportunities to sign with other teams for a more lucrative contract. Once arriving in Dallas, Jones played in a career-high 76 games in the regular season, starting 66 of them.
Jones started in every game of the playoffs and averaged a career-high 8.6 points and 3.3 rebounds per games and shot a career-best 34% from the 3-point line.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but he’s a priority,” Harrison said. “He’s priority 1A and 1B. I think he fits in with our team. He loves it here. We have to figure out the dynamics to get him to stay, but that’s a priority. We’ll do what we have to do to get it done.”
Coach Kidd’s Staff
Harrison also talked briefly about Coach Kidd’s coaching staff – specifically assistants Sean Sweeney and Jared Dudley – both of whom have garnered interest from other NBA teams after the Mavs’ season success and run to the Finals.
The Mavs granted the Detroit Pistons permission to interview Sweeney for their head coaching vacancy. Dudley, who won a championship as a player with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, has been reportedly named as one of several new targets for J.J. Redick, the new coach of the Lakers.
“We love both of them and we respect them,” Harrison said. “They’ve been valuable in getting us to where we’re at, but at the same time, it’s about people. Our goal is to develop players and staff. If opportunities preset themselves, we’re going to support them.
“They know how much we want them back, but it’s about growth,” Harrison continued. “You can’t hamstring players or staff from growing. We’re going to support them, but we do want them back. We’re hopeful that they’ll be back.”
NBA Draft/Summer
Thanks to the Finals run which had them playing until mid-June, the Mavs’ offseason/summer will be shorter than in previous years.
The Mavs own the 58th overall pick (second round) in this week’s NBA Draft. With the majority of their current roster under contract, they are also limited in any free agency moves. As mentioned above, Harrison expects to return the core group, but is open to what will improve a team coming off of an improbable run and season.
“We’re always going to try to get better.” That’s just the nature of the job,” he said.
