Mavs Planned for Luka Doncic Load Management After Losing Jalen Brunson to Knicks

Well before the 2022-23 NBA season began, the Dallas Mavericks already knew Luka Doncic was going to have to deal with a larger offensive burden than he had in his entire career due to how last offseason went.
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In early February, the Dallas Mavericks were threatening to overtake the Sacramento Kings for the third seed in the Western Conference playoff standings before things went south in a hurry. From that moment on, the Mavs plummeted all the way out of the NBA postseason picture, not even qualifying for the play-in tournament.

Many people pointed to the Kyrie Irving trade as the reason for Dallas' demise, but in all reality, Irving was one of the few bright spots the Mavs actually had this season, both on and off the court. The trade with the Brooklyn Nets did affect the Mavs' overall depth, though, as they had to exchange two key starters in Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith for one in Irving.

Under normal circumstances, Luka Doncic would have been able to compensate for that lack of depth, but the problem was that even with Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith on the team before the blockbuster trade, he still carried the biggest workload of his young career ... and the fatigue from that showed late in the season. Doncic and Irving took turns nursing nagging injuries in the team's final 20 games, and the Mavs weren't able to overcome that, as well as the limited time they had to establish better chemistry.

According to The Athletic's Tim Cato, the Mavs foresaw Doncic having a near-historic workload with Jalen Brunson leaving for the New York Knicks, and they had load management plans in place for him before the season even began due to him having a summer filled with international play. 

"[Doncic's workload] was a concern Dallas had before the season even began, and it had been decided, team sources said, that Doncic would enter the season with a load management plan after a short summer caused by the extended postseason run and his extensive national team duties for Slovenia," Cato wrote. "But Dallas quickly realized that the team relied on him to win more than it had imagined."

The goal for the Mavs going forward is to have enough quality rotational pieces around Doncic so that he can be fresh for the final stretch of next season. Adding Irving into the mix helps on the offensive end, but the team needs more capable wing defenders around the star duo, as well as a big-man upgrade in the middle. Dallas ranked 25th in defensive rating this season and dead-last in rebounding.

Given that the Mavs don't have many trade assets to work with, filling in all of their roster holes in one offseason will be a tough task to ask of GM Nico Harrison. It's a lot easier said than done, but it's also something that must be done if Dallas wants to find its way back to the playoffs next year. Perhaps the Mavs can finally have some much-needed NBA Lottery luck for the first time in franchise history on May 16 to get the ball rolling.

Follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter @dalton_trigg.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.