What the Mavericks envision for their young backcourt is a new-age rendition of one of the best guard tandems in NBA history.
Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars were together in Detroit for nine seasons. They did it all as the smallish-but-lethal backcourt that led the Pistons' "bad boy" teams to two championships and a whole bunch of victories.
Both are hall of famers.
OK, before you start laughing about comparisons between the Detroit legends and Luka Doncic and Dennis Smith Jr., there's a reason why the Mavericks' phones have been ringing a lot lately -- and will continue to do so until the NBA's Feb.