On July 8, 2015, the Mavericks franchise was dead. As Austin Ngaruiya said, the Dirk Nowitzki era was over.
That was the day DeAndre Jordan signed a contract with the Clippers after verbally agreeing with the Mavericks five days prior. It was the culmination of the downfall of the work Dallas had done to finally restock the team’s assets after emptying out the roster after the 2011 title to pursue star free agents.
It was the lowest point since that title season. The Mavericks spent years before the 2014-2015 season assembling and acquiring low-key, B and C-level free agents (Jose Calderon, Monta Ellis, Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson), nailing a draft pick (Jae Crowder), hitting on young cast-offs (Brandan Wright, Al-Farouq Aminu) and using that slow-but-steady talent acquisition approach to turn into a fun team after landing the needed home-run deals of Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons to push them over the edge and back toward a 50-win team.