Warriors Beat Celtics in NBA Finals; Biggest Takeaway for Doncic's Rising Mavs
Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks likely wouldn't want to talk much about moral victories, but if you're going to get eliminated in the conference finals, you might as well be able to say you lost to the best team that went on to win the championship.
That's where the Mavs are right now, as they watched the Golden State Warriors finish off the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals on Thursday night in six games. It was the fourth title for the Warriors in eight years, and two of those championship-less years involved a number of significant injuries. Steph Curry, for the first time in his career, won the Finals MVP award.
The Warriors are so good it can be maddening, but teams still have to respect the dynasty that has been built. Yes, Golden State has the largest payroll in the league, as opposing team owners like to point out as being some kind of unfair advantage, but it's mainly due to paying the star players it drafted. From the draft, to free agency and trades, the Warriors are a model for how all franchises should approach team building.
Although the Mavs haven't had the best draft history over the years, they still struck gold in 2018 by ending up with both Doncic, their undisputed superstar, and Jalen Brunson, who became the team's second-best player this year. Those two led the Mavs to within three games of the Finals, despite not having adequate playoff depth or a legitimate big in the starting lineup.
Dallas has addressed the latter issue by trading for Houston Rockets' versatile big man Christian Wood. The next steps are re-signing Brunson, which seems likely right now, as well as adding at least one more playoff rotation player – preferably another 3-and-D wing to take some of the burden off of Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock.
After losing to the Los Angeles Clippers in tightly-contested series in back-to-back years, the Mavs finally got over the first-round hump this year and finished as one of the league's top-4 teams. The only thing holding Dallas back this time around was depth and experience, and GM Nico Harrison is working tirelessly to give Doncic as much help as he's ever had before.
With the Warriors giving Doncic and the Mavs an up-close look at what it takes to be a champion, that might be the best thing Dallas can take with it into next season.
