The Mavericks opened the regular season 1-2 and sit 10th in the West. They lost 110-128 at Houston on October 21. They won 121-105 at Indiana on October 23, then lost 106-122 to San Antonio at home on October 24. The preseason ended 1-3, so the early pattern looks familiar. After the Pacers win, Dallas rose to 8th in the West. Power rankings moved the team from 22nd to 14th in a week, though the loss to the Spurs came after that update.
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The Pacers game was the best of the three. Kyrie Irving scored 24. P.J. Washington had 20 points and 13 rebounds, which settled for one night the questions around him. Against the Spurs, Sergio de Larrea led with 21 points and Marcus Sasser added 12.
The injury list is now the main story. Cooper Flagg went day-to-day with a left shoulder issue on October 23 and was moved to out the same day. A report on October 24 said he will be reevaluated next week. Dereck Lively II finally got a status. He went from day-to-day to out with a right foot issue on October 20, briefly returned to day-to-day on October 22, and was back to out that day. Santi Aldama (knee), Caleb Martin (right thumb) and Tarik Biberovic (right heel) all flipped between out and day-to-day this week. All three were listed out as of October 24.
Irving's status is unclear again. On October 24 he carried both a left knee tag and a rest tag. Those tags showed him as day-to-day in one entry and out in another. He scored 24 the night before. Some players did get good news on October 24. Zaccharie Risacher (hip), Morez Johnson Jr. (lower leg) and Max Christie (leg) were each listed day-to-day and then cleared. Jett Howard (right calf) went back and forth between out and day-to-day through the week and was cleared on October 24.
The roster changed at the edges. Dallas waived Dwight Powell on October 19. Walter Clayton Jr. joined on October 21 after a report that he agreed to a two-way deal. Dallas also exercised Flagg's third-year option on October 17 and cut Seth Lundy and John Poulakidas.
Some earlier questions have gone quiet. Michael Finley's front-office role, reported September 24, still has no stated scope. No new reports have named Washington's earlier day-to-day swings or Moussa Cisse's status, and the October 18 notes column on Aldama and Washington added no detail.
Next week's Flagg reevaluation and the status of Lively, Aldama, Martin and Biberovic will shape how much the Mavericks can lean on the depth they have.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 25Flagg went out with a left shoulder issue on October 23, and a report says he will be reevaluated next week.
Lively has been out with a right foot issue since October 22, after flipping between day-to-day and out two days earlier.
Irving scored 24 on October 23, but October 24 entries list a left knee tag and a rest tag.
All three were listed out on October 24 after flipping between out and day-to-day all week.
Named September 24 to a new role, with its scope still unreported.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Santi Aldama (3.8 wins without him) and Naji Marshall (1.8 wins without him): on/off from 2026-27, details under Injuries. Computed Sun, Oct 25; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Western Conference · 79 games leftNext 5: at Heat0%vs Thunder100%vs Rockets100%vs Kings0%at Spurs33%opponents win 47% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
33 days on the recordEarlier on the record29 more days · back to Fri, Sep 11
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Dusty May enters his first full season as head coach, inheriting a team built around 19-year-old Cooper Flagg, the top pick in the 2025 draft, who averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 70 games last season. Around him sit Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall, Max Christie, Santi Aldama, Zaccharie Risacher, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II. Last season was a 26-56 finish, with the offense ranked 27th in the league and the defense 19th, part of why the team slid to a -5.2 net rating. Payroll sits at $197.9 million across 18 contracts, over the $165.0 million cap but under the $200.4 million luxury tax, with Irving's $39.5 million the largest number on the books. Dallas has given up or swapped most of its own first-round picks through 2030, owing selections to Charlotte, the Clippers and Brooklyn. The summer and early fall brought a quieter kind of churn: the club exercised its third-year option on Flagg, cut Seth Lundy and John Poulakidas after short training-camp auditions, cycled through two-way bodies like Chris Mantis and Darin Green Jr., and gave Michael Finley a new front-office role whose scope has not been spelled out.
Identity and rivalries113 words
General manager Nico Harrison summed up the current approach bluntly: "I believe that defense wins championships," the line he used to defend trading Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis. That trade still defines how outsiders see this front office, even as the roster now centers on Flagg instead. The old in-state and conference rivalries still carry weight: the Spurs, who eliminated Dallas in a seven-game 2014 classic, the Rockets, who ended the Mavericks' 2015 playoff run, and the Clippers, who beat Dallas in the 2020 and 2021 playoffs before Dallas reversed that in 2024. Each matchup still carries Southwest Division and playoff-seeding stakes for a team trying to climb back from a 26-56 season.
Home, owners and numbers78 words
The Mavericks play in Dallas, where Mark Cuban has been a visible owner for years, including through a 2022 class-action lawsuit tied to his promotion of the cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital. More recently, team governor Dumont has been the voice backing the front office, saying ownership supported general manager Nico Harrison's "tough decisions." The franchise's ownership stretches back to original owner Don Carter, who sold the team to a group led by H. Ross Perot Jr. in 1996.
What they are chasing114 words
Dallas is trying to climb back from a 26-56 season and a play-in exit the year before, building that climb around Cooper Flagg after locking in his third-year option. The bigger question hanging over the team is whether the defense-first approach that cost them Dončić, voiced by Harrison, pays off now that the roster is reshaped around Flagg, Irving and Washington. Financially, the Mavericks are managing to stay under the luxury tax at $197.9 million against a $200.4 million line, with the $209.0 million first apron still in view. Fans keep arguing over Dereck Lively II's health, unresolved since he wasn't cleared for camp, and over what Finley's new front-office role will actually mean.
The long view491 words
The Dallas Mavericks joined the NBA as an expansion team for the 1980-81 season. Don Carter provided half of the 12.5 million dollar expansion fee, working with Norm Sonju and lawyer Doug Adkins; the name came from the 1957-1962 TV western Maverick, chosen by fans over Wranglers and Express, and the show's star, James Garner, was part of the ownership group. Dick Motta was the first head coach. The Mavericks opened at Reunion Arena, beating the San Antonio Spurs 103-92, but finished their debut season 15-67. Guard Brad Davis, signed out of the Anchorage Northern Knights in December of that first season, played twelve years in Dallas and had his number 15 retired.
The 1981 draft brought Mark Aguirre (24.6 points per game over seven years), Rolando Blackman (19.2 points per game over eleven years) and Jay Vincent, who led the team in scoring as a rookie. Derek Harper, drafted in 1983, averaged 15 points and 6.1 assists over a decade. The Mavericks posted their first winning record in 1983-84 at 43-39 and made the playoffs for the first time, with Aguirre making his first All-Star team. Sam Perkins, drafted fourth overall in 1984, averaged 14.4 points and 8.0 rebounds over six seasons, and James Donaldson became the first Mavericks center named to the All-Star Game, in 1988. The team won its first Midwest Division title in 1986-87 at 55-27 under coach John MacLeod, and Roy Tarpley won the NBA Sixth Man Award in 1988. The Mavericks reached the Western Conference finals in 1987-88 but lost to the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. Donaldson's ruptured patella tendon in March 1989 preceded a decline, and after a 47-35 season and playoff loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1989-90, the team did not have another winning season or playoff trip until 2001.
The acquisition of Dirk Nowitzki in 1998 turned the franchise around. Nowitzki led Dallas to its first NBA Finals in 2006 and its only NBA championship in 2011. He retired after his 21st season in Dallas, a record, following three straight missed playoffs from 2017 to 2019. Luka Doncic then took over as the franchise player, leading the Mavericks back to the playoffs in 2020, to the Western Conference finals in 2022, and to a third NBA Finals in 2024. In February 2025 the Mavericks traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, receiving Anthony Davis as the centerpiece in return.
Since their 1980-81 debut, the Mavericks have won five division titles, in 1987, 2007, 2010, 2021 and 2024, three conference championships, in 2006, 2011 and 2024, and the 2011 NBA championship. The team plays at American Airlines Center, sharing the arena with the NHL's Dallas Stars. The franchise fans recognize runs from Aguirre and Blackman in the 1980s, through the lean 1990s, to the Nowitzki era that delivered the 2011 title, and the Doncic years that ended with his trade to the Lakers for Davis in 2025.