Mavericks officially claim unwanted title amid disastrous season

After a two-day break in the action, the Dallas Mavericks are set for a four-game road trip that will feature three games in four nights starting tomorrow. With Dallas being tied with the Phoenix Suns record-wise and currently behind them in the standings at the 11th seed, Anthony Davis was listed as doubtful on Dallas' most recent injury report, as it seems like Davis will be ramping up for a return on this road trip despite this season being practically lost for Dallas.

Davis seems bound and determined to prove a message to Mavericks fans that this trade wasn't as lopsided as many are thinking, and fans shouldn't want anything less out of Dallas' new face of the franchise. However, it goes without saying that this is a risky move in Davis' instance, especially considering that him returning could mean that he's shoving off adductor surgery till the summer or could end up suffering a different injury.

Dallas' imminent future is undoubtedly in the gutter as far as this season is concerned, but there's still a little optimism among diehard Mavericks fans that a lottery selection in this year's draft paired with Davis, Kyrie Irving (whenever he returns), as well as a supporting cast of versatile role players and rim protectors, could make some noise in the Western Conference next season.

Mavericks deemed to have "bleakest future" in NBA

Given Dallas' season spiraling as far down the well more than any general fan or NBA analyst could ever posit after they traded Luka Doncic, it's natural that non-diehard Mavericks fans will be far more bleak when it comes to how they are viewing the Mavericks' future, and they can't be blamed whatsoever given Dallas' current state of affairs. This was entirely the case on a recent episode of The Ringer's NBA podcast, as prominent NBA analyst Howard Beck deemed the Mavericks to have the "bleakest future" out of any team in the league in a segment over which team is the most down bad in the NBA currently.

Beck cited Dallas' draft capital being tied up for a majority of the next few years, questions over Irving's ability to come back from a torn ACL as an older guard, Dallas having a relatively older roster, as well as Dallas' lack of flexibility going forward all as major reasons as to why the Mavericks have the worst future in the entire league.

Beck isn't wrong in any of his assessments to be completely objective, even if he may be slightly underscoring the potential of this Mavericks roster given another solid lottery pick this summer. The Mavericks and President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison have handicapped themselves extremely hard from a flexibility standpoint in the next few seasons to Beck's point, but the NBA is a flexible league in nature, so there are a lot of variables at play in terms of determining Dallas' long-term future, even if any playoff hopes this current season are virtually out the window.

The Mavericks may have one of the bleakest futures in the league, and a large portion of Dallas' fanbase has become detached since the Doncic trade understandably, but there is still hope that Dallas can reconcile this disastrous season in the coming years throughout local circles. The Mavericks won't ever be able to fully justify the Doncic trade nor will fans ever truly make sense of it given that Doncic could've brought multiple titles to Dallas over his career and was only 25 years old at the time of the trade, but if fate has any sort of remorse for a Dallas team that's had a nightmare season, perhaps the Mavericks can get back to the mountain top in the coming seasons.