The deep, dark truth about the Dallas Mavericks before today’s massive Kyrie Irving trade was that they were stuck — stuck with a roster that didn’t fit the timeline of its young superstar, stuck with limited ways to get out of it due to years of mismanagement and bad luck.
It was widely believe the only way for this Mavericks roster to take the next step and finally get that star sidekick for Luka Doncic was to be patient, allow draft picks to become available and then cash in when the time is right. That sounded fine on paper, but looking at the rest of the league, it was never perfect.