The Atlanta Hawks Can Learn A Lot From the Dallas Mavericks Run To The NBA Finals

For the first time since 2011, the Dallas Mavericks are headed to the NBA Finals, where they will hope to win the second championship in franchise history. They have one of the top three (at worst) players in the game in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving has turned into the perfect running mate beside him. They will face a tough challenge when they take on Boston, but they have already beaten the Clippers, Thunder and Timberwolves to get there.

A year ago though, this run from Dallas would have seemed impossible.

Dallas traded for Irving last season, but they did not reap the benefits immediately. In fact, the Mavericks took a lot of heat for tanking at the end of the season and missing the playoffs just so they could keep their top 10 protected lottery pick. They would go on to take Duke center Dereck Lively II with that No. 10 pick, but I will get back to him in a moment.

Leading up to this year's trade deadline, Dallas was just 28-23 and did not seem like a viable threat to win the Western Conference. Denver, the Clippers, Minnesota, and Oklahoma City looked like the favorites and there was a chance that Dallas was going to be headed for the play-in tournament. They traded for Hornets forward P.J. Washington and Wizards center Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline, but nobody around the league seemed to think that was going to really change the fortunes of this team. They looked like a franchise that was going to be out of assets to build around Doncic in the future and likely going for a quick playoff exit.

As it turns out, the Mavericks have made every right move since missing the playoffs last season and put the perfect team around Doncic. Lively and Gafford have turned into a great tandem at center. Even though he is just a rookie, Lively has been tremendous as a rim protector on defense and a lob threat alongside Doncic, who is one of the game's best passers. Gafford offers much of the same traits and together, you are getting 48 minutes of good center play and that has been at the core of this run for Dallas.

Washington was a good player for the Hornets, but with players like Doncic and Irving around him, he has taken his game to another level. He was pivotal in the series against Oklahoma City, shooting 47% from three. He can be an effective scorer and he has been a perfect fit on this team.

The big key though has been Irving. There were plenty of doubts about Irving's fit alongside Doncic, but he has turned into a perfect running mate and is great without the ball in hands and letting Doncic operate the offense. This franchise looked like it did not have a direction at this time last year, but now they have surrounded Doncic with the right pieces and they are four wins away from winning an NBA title.

There is a lot that the Atlanta Hawks can learn from this.

While I am not going to claim that Trae Young is on the same level as Luka is, he is a franchise cornerstone type of talent and he is only 25 years old. He is arguably the second best player in franchise history already and if he keeps going like this, he will surpass Dominique Wilkins. At age 25, he is already the franchise leader in assists and one of the best offensive playmakers and creators in the league. Young made the confernece finals before Doncic did, but ever since then, the Hawks have done the complete opposite of what the Mavericks have done to surround Luka with the right team to win.

After making the run to the Eastern Conference Finals, some (not all) of the moves the Hawks have made have been detrimental to building and making the team better. They chose not to re-sign Delon Wright after the 2022 first-round loss to the Miami Heat. Wright was a very good backup point guard and an excellent point-of-attack defender, something Atlanta sorely misses. They could have re-signed him but chose not to. Wright is the kind of player that was a perfect fit on the team.

The biggest mistake though was making the Dejounte Murray trade. Murray is a very good player in his own right, but he and Young don't pair well together on the court. Many analysts who cover the league criticized the trade at the time because of the perceived poor fit together and it has proven to be that. The Hawks sent a ton of draft capital for Murray, but the results were a first-round exit vs the Celtics last year (in which Young played phenomenally) and then a loss in the play-in tournament this year. That was the Hawks biggest move to try and add a star piece around Young, but they made the wrong choice. They either should have been more patient or tried to find a better trade target, such as Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who would have been a much better fit on the team .

Later that same summer they traded for Murray, Atlanta chose to trade Kevin Huerter, in what was a salary dump move. Huerter was one of the Hawks better young players and would help this team currently, but they traded him to Sacramento for a protected 1st round pick, Justin Holiday, and Mo Harkless. The Kings pick has not conveyed yet and neither Holiday or Harkless is on the team any longer.

At last year's trade deadline, Atlanta made a solid move to acquire Saddiq Bey from the Detroit Pistons. While Bey is a solid player, he is not always the best fit alongside Young because of his defense. As a rotational player, Bey fits fine and that is probably his best role. It is not a clean fit like Washington, Lively, or Gafford has been with Dallas.

Last summer, the Hawks traded forward John Collins in what should be considered another salary dump. Atlanta mismanaged Collins's situation and kept him in trade talks for too long. Collins, who is a really good player, only brought back a 2nd round pick and Rudy Gay.

After drafting Onyeka Okongwu 6th overall in the 2020 draft, they have kept Capela for too long and even extended him. Instead of trading Capela for assets and going with Okongwu at center, Atlanta is now paying two centers and Capela's trade value has gone down.

Not every move Atlanta has made has been bad, in all fairness. Drafting Jalen Johnson and Okongwu have been good moves and both Kobe Bufkin and Mouhamed Gueye have shown promise.

The lesson here should be that the Hawks can win with Trae Young if they put the right pieces around him and they have the opportunity to do so this summer. Atlanta won the NBA Draft Lottery and while this draft does not have a top tier prospect like Victor Wembanyama or Zion Williamson, it is full of complementary pieces that would fit great alongside Young. Alex Sarr, Zaccharie Risacher, or Donovan Clingan would all be good complementary pieces to pair with Young. Jalen Johnson has emerged as a future star player, giving the Hawks two high-level talents.

There are other ways for the Hawks to add talent as well. If they intend to keep Young, trading Murray for assets would help the team. Capela and De'Andre Hunter are also candidates to be traded this offseason. What those trade returns will look like, I can't be sure, but they could be role players or picks.

The Murray trade depleted this team of its draft picks and the future for Atlanta looked bleak (similar, but not exaclty like the Mavericks were a year ago) after the play-in loss to Chicago, but winning the draft lottery and potentially getting good returns in trades with other players like Murray, Hunter, and Capela has given this franchise an opportunity to finally put the right pieces around one of the best players in franchise history and build a winner. Now Atlanta just has to find the right pieces like Dallas did and they could be a much better team a year from now.