The Dallas Mavericks have plenty of reasons to be happy about right now. They just inked Luka Doncic to a five-year, $207 million max extension and locked in their franchise player for the foreseeable future.
Having Doncic around instantly makes the Mavericks a playoff team, and his presence will definitely attract more talent.
Nonetheless, Jalen Rose believes that Mark Cuban still needs to find another star next to him and Kristaps Porzingis if they want to be a legit championship contender out of the Western Conference:
“They’re gonna need one more All-Star caliber player to me to catapult themselves into contention status in the Western Conference. But we saw it this year, with Covid, with injuries, we’re going back to an 82 games schedule, there are crazy things that happen during a regular season,” Rose started.
“The Lakers as an older bunch, they’re not gonna have #1 or maybe even a #2 seed. So that’s gonna leave the room for the teams like the Jazz, and for the Denver Nuggets, and all of those teams who are a lot younger that’s gonna play the marathon game. So it’s interesting to see how it works out for the Mavs, but as long as you can get Luka signed, you do that immediately,” he concluded.
The Mavericks are reportedly trying to get an upgrade at the point guard position to take some pressure off Doncic’s shoulders. Their core of stars is still pretty young, so they have enough time to figure things out.
But given their cap situation, perhaps the most realistic scenario for them to get one or more stars on the team would be to move Porzingis, whose trade value is at an all-time low right now. Whatever is the case, having Doncic around for another 5 years is great news for them.
