There used to be a mural outside of St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, a restaurant and bar in the historic Deep Ellum neighbourhood of Dallas.
Used to be. It is no longer there. Instead, the artist behind the mural took to it with a roller and can of black paint last month.
READ MORE: NBA title race flipped on its head Mavericks trade for Kyrie Irving
But black paint could not erase the headlines, both local and national, that it created after Mavericks owner Mark Cuban emailed the artist to criticise the “disrespectful” mural.
Mon, 06 Feb
Monday February 6th
Now Doncic has his Robin. Although, Kyrie Irving is more than just a sidekick. Irving is an eight-time All-Star who was averaging 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists this season with the Brooklyn Nets before demanding a trade. Irving is a walking human headline — sometimes for the right reasons, like when he takes over late in games, averaging the most points per game this season in fourth quarters. But other times it isn’t for the right reasons, be it missing two-thirds of a season for refusing to follow New York City’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate or refusing to apologise for sharing anti-Semitic material on social media. The hope for the Mavericks is that Irving’s existing relationship with Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and coach Jason Kidd will be enough to keep him in check. After all, at this stage Dallas has only made a short-term investment in Irving, who is a free agent this summer. Pelicans spoil LBJ’s points party | 01:10 But as The Athletic’s Tim Cato put it on Monday morning, it is nonetheless a “high-risk, high reward” move from the Mavericks. It is also proof that as much as Cuban tried to publicly suggest otherwise, instead of being “disrespectful” that mural was simply just another reminder of the reality facing the franchise. A report from MacMahon last month claimed Doncic had “strongly indicated” he wanted the team to make upgrades ahead of the deadline, something which Cuban refuted. “Tim MacMahon got it dead wrong,” the Mavericks owner said in a statement to the ESPN reporter. “Luka has never suggested, asked, demanded or discussed changes to the roster.” That last sentence though, if true, was a red flag in itself. Surely Doncic is at the point in his career where he has proven that he deserves to have a say on roster decisions, like any other superstar in the league. After all, Doncic ranks second in the league for usage rate (37.6 per cent) and third in percent of team’s point scored (38.2 per cent). The Mavs have leaned on him a lot and not just this season. “The artist said something along the lines of, ‘I was just hoping that Mark would see this and be spurred into action’… it doesn’t take paint brushes to figure out this team needs to upgrade,” MacMahon said. “Honestly, my thought when I wrote this in paragraph 33 of a story was it was almost like a no s*** statement. Like, sources say Luka Doncic says Texas summers are too damn hot. Obviously they need to upgrade but the whole point was this tough spot that they’re in.” It had been like this for a number of years now and having given so much to the organisation already, there had to come a point where Doncic feels like he is getting something back. Trading for Irving obviously eases the pressure on Doncic to create, although both players prefer to have the ball in their hands, so Kidd will have to find a compromise there. In saying that, Irving made it work with another ball-dominant player in LeBron James and the result was a championship. Even if it doesn’t work, at least the Mavericks have not committed to Irving long-term so they can afford to see how it plays out before deciding whether to extend the 30-year-old. Lebron LOSES IT over no foul call | 00:45 The hardest part of putting together a title contender is often finding that superstar player. The Mavericks already had that in Doncic. The past few seasons have all been about building around him, although Dallas had already tried to do that, putting shot-makers and defenders around him with varied success. Jalen Brunson could have been part of the solution, although there is no guaranteeing he would have been as good for the Mavs as he is now for the Knicks. Before Irving became available, there were suggestions the Mavericks were actually better served to take a strategic step backwards to better prepare themselves for a big swing in the near-future, when a genuine co-star for Doncic became available. Obviously that changed when Irving put himself on the trade block, although given all his off-court antics there is certainly a greater element of risk in trading for him. MacMahon put it best while speaking on Windhorst’s podcast, revealing a conversation with a pro scout on a title contender that spoke to Dallas’ delicate balancing act regardless of who they traded for. “They obviously want to upgrade,” MacMahon said. “I’m talking to a pro scout on a team that’s a contender and he says [of the Mavericks], ‘It’s a really tough spot and it’s the pressure great players place on the organisation. You want to be good but the balance of patience and competitiveness is a really hard line to walk’. “The Mavericks want to upgrade but they also need to be patient. The problem is, patience is not necessarily a set timeline but it’s a set timeline in terms of when you might have to worry about things going south.” That timeline though could be as short as just a few months should this be a short-term rental on the Mavericks’ end. NBA insider Marc Stein reported Irving has “no assurances of a subsequent contract” from the Mavericks, but will be eligible for a two-year extension worth $83 million ($A120m). The Athletic though reports that Irving, who hits free agency this summer, “has been adamant” about wanting a full, four-year max deal nearing almost $200 million ($A289m). The ceiling of a Irving-Doncic backcourt is sky-high but the Mavericks also risk Irving walking out the door, leaving them with even fewer assets to get another co-star should things fall apart. Giannis drops 50 points in Bucks win | 01:14 “This is a pretty high risk move for Dallas,” said Trey Kerby on the ‘No Dunks’ podcast for The Athletic. “The Mavs could either have four seasons of the best backcourt in the league. Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. Are you kidding? That’s incredible. “Or they could have six months of that, flame out in the playoffs and then Kyrie goes to the Lakers. “Or they could completely alienate their star who is supposed to be the saviour of the franchise after Dirk Nowitzki left by bringing in a combustible second star who may not totally want to be there long-term, leaving Luka even more barren and alone in Dallas. “All three of those are really on the table here for Dallas.” Should Irving leave in free agency the Mavericks will have almost maximum cap space to go after another co-star for Doncic but obviously they’d much prefer it just work out with Irving. It’s not as if the Mavericks have a history of success with taking big swings in free agency. The Mavericks will also be betting on simply out-scoring their opponents, having given up their best perimeter defender in Dorian Finney-Smith to land Irving. Josh Green would help fill that void, although The Dallas Morning News reported the Mavericks could still make further moves before the deadline and the Australian is one of the more valuable trade assets the team has left. That is just one of several questions to come out of Monday’s trade, which either could result in a championship or an even greater pain than that after Brunson left in free agency. If it is the latter, it will even more important than ever before that Cuban gets the PR right.
