Dallas Mavericks: 3 lessons the Mavs can learn from the Cowboys

What Dallas Mavericks can learn from Cowboys: 1. Embrace the youth movement

The Mavs have long neglected the draft, and that’s essentially been a reflection of their head coach. Rick Carlisle is notorious for being reluctant to play young talent. The former NBA Coach of the Year sees veterans as more trustworthy to carry out his system. Carlisle often neglected to play his young players until he was pigeonholed into it, with Luka Doncic being the exception.

The Cowboys seemed so promising just a few years ago. They were one of the youngest teams in the NFL with most of their franchise cornerstones under the age of 25. It seemed like their window of opportunity would be open for quite a while. After all, football is a young man’s game. Going into this season, they fell prey to the same temptation the Mavericks have in the past. The Boys tried to expedite the process with older players.

Where the Mavericks oftentimes longed for free agency and neglected the draft, the Cowboys did the complete opposite. They have mostly avoided splashy signings for trying to develop their young talent in house. This year, the Cowboys became a little impatient and started signing bigger names that might’ve been over the hill. What followed was a team seeing injuries left and right with sub-par play and toxic locker room behavior from their veteran free-agent signings.

The Mavericks know all too well what it’s like to sign players past their prime. They must learn from both the Cowboys and their own mistakes here. There is a place for a veteran presence on the team. Every great team has a healthy mix of experienced vets and hungry young studs, but the Mavericks have a history of just being fixated on the former.

If the Dallas Mavericks want to surround Luka Doncic with a competent cast for years to come, Carlisle has to be focused on winning and developing the young pieces.