Mavericks are nearing historical collapse in critical area

A 2-7 start through nine games in the regular season is one that no fan had in store when the Dallas Mavericks tipped off their 2025-26 NBA campaign. Not only has the team been a complete disaster from top to bottom, as they have struggled staying healthy with their star players, but the Mavericks' offensive identity has been one where they have yet to find a reliable ball-handler on offense, when it was the team's biggest need heading into the offseason.

Not only have the Mavericks struggled on offense, but when it comes to shooting the ball, they have been one of the worst teams in the NBA as they rank 30th in the NBA in offensive rating with 103.2. This would not only keep the Mavericks dead last in the NBA by a long shot, but would be one of the worst offensive performances in franchise history.

There's no doubt that fans can link the exact moment to when the team's offense fell apart, and it was after Nico Harrison traded away Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving went down with a torn ACL at the beginning of March last season. With these two moves in mind, the Mavericks have struggled to stay healthy, and the team's offense has reached a historic low.

Mavericks' offensive output is reaching all-time lows post-Doncic trade

Entering the season, the Mavericks knew that they needed a ball-handling-minded guard following the injury to Irving that would likely sideline him for over half of the coming season. While the Mavericks would sign D'Angelo Russell in the opening hours of free agency, the overall point of having as many ball handlers on the roster as possible was missed by Harrison and the Mavericks' front office.

With the lack of playmakers on the team's active roster, the Mavericks would make sure to give the ball to rookie Cooper Flagg in the hopes that his having the ball as much as possible would force him into uncomfortable situations and push his progression as a professional basketball player even further; however, this couldn't be further from the truth. While Flagg has continued to make progress each game since entering the league, Jason Kidd's philosophy of making Flagg uncomfortable early in the season has only backfired on the overall team's output.

Not only are the Mavericks ranked last in overall offensive output, but their supposed defensive identity has also been compromised after suffering multiple injuries to players such as Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II, only a few games into the regular season. There's no doubt that the Mavericks should only get healthier from this point on, but the narrative style remains the same even when fully healthy; the offense simply can't compete with the best teams in the league.

After going all in for a trade to send Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in return for Davis, the expectation was for the Mavericks to be competing for championships at least for the next three seasons, but that couldn't be further from the truth, less than a year into the post-Doncic experience. It's unclear what singular move the team could make to rebound their season besides getting a creator like Irving back into the lineup, but it's less than three weeks into the season, and Dallas' year is already in free fall due to their historically bad offensive rating and output.