New Territory For the Dallas Mavericks as Free Agency Starts

With free agency right around the corner, the Dallas Mavericks find themselves in new territory heading into the craziest time of the NBA season.

It was two years ago that the Dallas Mavericks sent Rick Carlisle, Mark Cuban, Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons and more to meet with DeAndre Jordan in Beverly Hills at the beginning of free agency.

The energy and excitement surrounding free agency was at another all-time high as the fan base anticipated Dallas to have a good chance at landing a big fish in free agency. Jordan obviously ended up back in Los Angeles and Dallas turned towards adding veterans Deron Williams, Zaza Pachulia, and Charlie Villanueva.

Fast forward to 12 months ago and the excitement was back as news started circulating that Dallas was pursuing Hassan Whiteside and that they had a really good chance at landing the young big man.

Midnight hit and Dallas had a free agent meeting with Whiteside as they tried to convince him of the same future they had previously pitched to DeAndre Jordan. In addition to Whiteside, Dallas was also linked to Mike Conley Jr. and even Nicolas Batum.

The bait was set for the big fish and Dallas reeled back in their line to find all of the bait gone with an empty hook.

Within 24 hours into free agency, the future looked dim in Dallas.

The big fish were flying off the market and Dallas was looking at their legend in Nowitzki entering the final years of his career. Their most promising young assets were Justin Anderson and Dwight Powell. Wesley Matthews and J.J. Barea were the best teammates of Nowitzki on the team.

The future looked dim, but Dallas quickly turned the corner.

In the span of 12 months, they found their new building blocks in Harrison Barnes (25 years old), Nerlens Noel (23 years old), and now Dennis Smith Jr. (19 years old). Not to mention role players such as Seth Curry (26 years old), Yogi Ferrell (24 years old), and Dorian Finney Smith (24 years old).

Now, Dallas enters free agency in new territory.

No more big fish chasing. No huge plans. It’s “re-tooling”, not “rebuilding”, for the future as Donnie Nelson liked to tab it.

Instead of All-NBA, potential All-Star type of players, its names such as Ben McLemore and Johnathan Simmons that resemble the type of talent that Dallas could entertain at the start of free agency.

For the first time in years, barring something unexpected, there isn’t any midnight wine-and-dine type of meetings set up that have fans glued to their mobile devices. No big rumors and no big storylines.

It’s simple…keep building around your young core already set in place.

Sure, Nerlens Noel is a restricted free agent and as ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported, he is willing to listen to offers from other teams. But don’t get too worried about losing him as a Mavs fan. The situation is more about “how much will it cost” instead of “if” when it comes to him being back in Dallas for the long haul.

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Dallas would love to get Noel for under his max figure and I believe it has been evident over the past couple of weeks. From the press conferences on draft night to the introductory press conference for Dennis Smith Jr., the big five (Nelson, Cuban, Carlisle, Finley and Dirk) have been pretty consistent on including Noel’s name when talking about future plans.

Noel has naturally been used throughout answers with the media and it might not be a coincidence.

When I asked Mark Cuban back in the Spring about how likely would it be that Nerlens would be back, he jokingly said he couldn’t answer that question and asked if I wanted to pay the fine while laughing.

Cuban might not be able to say on the record that they will match anything, but will all the casual, natural talk including Noel as a future building block shy teams away when free agency starts? Will a team waste the time and possibly cap space for multiple days in order for Dallas to just match the offer?

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This is just speculation on my part, but it looks like Dallas is bringing back Noel no matter the cost.

Noel is penciled in, Smith Jr. is starting Summer League in a few weeks and Harrison Barnes has been in the gym every morning at 7AM preparing for next year. That’s your core and you should be thrilled if you’re a fan of the Mavs.

Now, it’s about finding players that fit the same timeline of that young core. It’s about finding younger players on bargain deals that you could develop into something like you did with Seth Curry. It’s about finding those young guns looking for a chance and new opportunity.

Free agency might be different and boring for Mavs fans heading into the first few hours of free agency, but if Dallas’ young core is the result, then sign me up any day for a boring free agency.

This is new territory for the Dallas Mavericks and a new territory that should reap harvest in the years to come.

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So sit back, watch the frenzy unfold, and enjoy the new mindset in Dallas as the youth movement continues.