Have the Mavericks hit bottom?

By David Mullen

On June 17, 2024, the Dallas Mavericks walked off the floor at TD Garden in Boston as winners. They had surprised NBA experts by winning the difficult Western Conference playoffs and reaching the NBA Finals. The Mavs were defeated 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven game series by a superior Celtics team, but the future success of the Mavericks seemed like a solid bet. 

Their starting lineup in the penultimate 2023-24 season game was superstars Luka Dončić and former NBA Champion Kyrie Irving, P.J. Washington, Derrick Jones Jr. and center Daniel Gafford. 

Coming off the 2026 NBA All-Star weekend and going into their game on Friday, Feb. 20 against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas is on a nine-game losing streak. A 10th consecutive loss is almost assured. When the current wave of losses will subside is anyone’s guess.

With NBA Rookie of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg recovering from a foot injury and Irving yet to play this season, the Mavs starting lineup in their 20-point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on February 12 was Washington, Gafford, guard Max Christie, forward Naji Marshall and undrafted guard Brandon Williams, one season removed from the developmental G League.

Even with a healthy Flagg, imagining today’s Mavericks reaching the NBA Finals again soon, let alone making a playoff appearance, seems as unlikely as the shocking collapse of the franchise. The Mavericks — in casino jargon — have crapped out.

It all began on December 27, 2023, when the NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Mavericks to the Adelson family led by matriarch Miriam Adelson. For a price of roughly $3.5 billion, the Adelsons acquired a reported 73 percent of the team from Mark Cuban, who was looked upon as a savior of the plagued franchise when he acquired the Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million.

Despite no professional sports experience, Adelson’s son-in-law Patrick Dumont took over as team governor. The Adelson family got into the sports business with experience only in the sports book business.

According to reports, matriarch Adelson, a strong financial supporter of President Donald J. Trump and the MAGA movement, made her fortune in gaming. In 2024, she emerged as one of Trump’s biggest donors, contributing nearly $100 million to the pro-Trump super PAC, Preserve America PAC. The family fortune is drawn from ownership of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates casinos in Macao and Singapore. Adelson is considered the wealthiest person in Nevada.

The Adelson family’s intention is quite clear. They want to be at the forefront of building mega casino properties in Texas. 

Currently illegal, save a few small Native American casinos in Eagle Pass, El Paso and Livingston, the Adelsons believe they can use the Mavericks as leverage to build the first casino-resort in Texas, but there is no reason to believe that state legislators will approve casino gaming anytime soon.

As owner of the Mavericks, Cuban claims that he lost “hundreds of millions of dollars.” In a March 2025 Facebook post, Cuban wrote, “I made money two out of 23 years I was the majority owner.” It does appear that Cuban recouped any losses in the sale that netted a reported $3.2 billion profit.

Under Adelson’s ownership, Dončić was traded to the hated Lakers for Anthony “Street Clothes” Davis and Christie. The oft-injured Davis played 29 games for the Mavericks before being shipped to the Washington Wizards for 34-year-old Khris Middleton, a handful of journeyman players and future draft picks. With the Lakers, Dončić leads the NBA with a 32.8 ppg scoring average.  

GM Nico Harrison, who the Adelson’s inherited and subsequently fired, orchestrated the Dončić deal. Like the lyrics from the Kenny Rogers hit tune “The Gambler,” the Adelsons understand “you got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” But the damage had been done.

The Mavericks’ issues run much deeper than a failed former GM and inexperienced, long-distance owner. Except for Flagg, an unlikely 2025 Draft lottery win, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd is saddled with a team full of miscast players playing with little cohesion. Flagg has been charged with assuming the role as offensive leader that the eight-year veteran Dončić once held. Flagg is 19 years old and can’t legally enter a casino until he turns 21 on December 21, 2027.  

The Dallas Mavericks began in 1980. For fans that have lived through the many losing seasons and poor first round picks like Bill Garnett, Jim Farmer, Randy “Not the Cowboys Hall of Famer” White, Cherokee Parks, Maurice Ager and a slew of other busts, the rebuilding effort seems insurmountable. The Mavs 2011 World Championship, led by icon Dirk Nowitzki and with Cuban at the helm, seems light years ago.  

In less than two years, the Dallas franchise has hit rock bottom like a failed casino gambler. The odds of the Mavericks rising from the current state of disarray under the Adelson clan seems like a long shot. Maybe the casino-driven Adelson family will appease the Mavs resilient fan base with free drinks and a 24-hour buffet.