The Dallas Mavericks are sinking down the Western Conference standings with surprising speed.
After a strong start to the season, the team has been awfully irregular lately and they are now the 11th seed in the West, just ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers.
Yeah, it’s that bad.
Luka Doncic has been putting up MVP numbers, yet the team still suffers.
They are losing to some surprising groups.
Mavs this season have lost to:
— Nuggets without Jokic/Murray
— Pelicans without Zion/Ingram
— Wizards without Beal/KP
— Raptors without Siakam
— Magic without Paolo
— Pistons without Cade pic.twitter.com/JqYaOkpJOb— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 2, 2022
In fact, so far this season, the Mavericks fell to the Denver Nuggets without Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the New Orleans Pelicans without Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, the Washington Wizards without Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis, and the Toronto Raptors without Pascal Siakam.
As if that’s not bad enough, they were also defeated by the lacking Orlando Magic without star player Paolo Banchero and the Detroit Pistons when they were without Cade Cunningham.
What is going on?
Why are short-handed teams taking out the Mavs?
The Damage Done To Dallas
It wasn’t supposed to be this way for the Mavericks.
Few people thought they’d be the best team in the West, but the 11th?
That’s far from what most people anticipated.
This is proof positive that the team cannot thrive solely on the hard work of Doncic alone, he needs more help.
He is getting some great assistance at times from other players, like Christian Wood, Tim Hardaway Jr, Spencer Dinwiddie, and others.
But the lineup and coaching choices being made by Jason Kidd obviously aren’t working.
The season is still young but it’s time that Dallas takes a good, hard look at what is going wrong.
If they don’t, the slide to the bottom will continue.
NEXT: Luka Doncic Is Leaving The Rest Of The League Behind