LOS ANGELES -- Going into the final third of the NBA season, the Mavericks have been reincarnated as a science project.
The guy wearing the lab coat is not Mark Cuban, it’s Rick Carlisle.
The trading deadline will come and go on Thursday and it’s looking more like the Mavericks will be doing nothing, or something that doesn’t flick the needle much on the NBA’s grand-scheme meter.
But the experimenting on the court is only just beginning.
Carlisle recently put Dwight Powell in the starting lineup after going with rookie Maxi Kleber for nearly half the season.