In the aftermath of the Luka Doncic trade, the Dallas Mavericks are facing immense pressure to make a successful playoff run. In one of their last-ditch efforts to improve this season, the Mavs had dreams of signing Ben Simmons before he agreed to join the Clippers.
“League sources say that Dallas had an interest in joining the buyout market bidding for Ben Simmons, who swiftly joined the LA Clippers after negotiating his release from the Brooklyn Nets and held appeal to the Mavericks as a small ball center,” wrote NBA insider Marc Stein.
The Mavericks are all-in on the championship pursuit and Simmons is someone who could have helped them in the frontcourt. Simmons might have been open to joining the new-look Mavericks but making it work financially would have been a tough ordeal.
“The Mavericks sit less than $200,000 away from the NBA’s first luxury-tax apron,” wrote Stein. “With Caleb Martin’s trade kicker hiking his salary from $9.2 million to $10.4 million for apron purposes after the Mavericks acquired Martin from Philadelphia, creating sufficient wiggle room to try to beat out the Clippers, Rockets, and Cleveland Cavaliers for Simmons was not mathematically possible.”
Simmons, 28, agreed to a buyout with the Nets and became a free agent shortly after this year’s NBA trade deadline. With career averages of 13.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game, several teams thought that Ben could still be a productive two-way player in the right situation.
Ben could have bolstered their frontcourt for the Mavericks and given them another ball handler and elite defender off the bench. His injury history is concerning, but he has shown flashes of brilliance this season with averages of 6.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.9 assists per game.
It made perfect sense for the Mavericks to consider Simmons, especially at a discounted price but the problem is that he’s had trouble staying healthy in the past and even refused to play an entire season for the 76ers. Trying to sign him after parting with Doncic over “conditioning issues” certainly raises questions. Nevertheless, they didn’t have enough resources to convince him to sign and they missed the opportunity.
Despite trading Luka Doncic this season, the Mavericks are still on the hook for over $178.5 million – which ranks as the 8th highest payroll in the NBA. Between Davis, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and PJ Washington, the Mavericks were limited in what they could offer and they were unable to outbid the competitors for Simmons’ services.
Unsurprisingly, Simmons joined James Harden and the Clippers for what may be the most important stretch of his career. And while the results have been good so far (12 points and seven rebounds in his Clippers debut), Simmons still has much to prove before anyone’s ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.
This season, the Mavericks have no more moves to make besides what happens on the court. After the most controversial trade in NBA history, the Mavs need this roster to succeed and they are hoping that the core players can get healthy when it’s time to compete in the playoffs.
At 8th in the West and winners of six in their last 10 games, the Mavericks are certainly trending in the right direction even if everything around the team is in chaos. All they can do now is quiet the noise by winning games and giving maximum effort every minute on the court.
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