ESPN gives Max Christie a challenge that the Mavericks need him to ace

Max Christie is about to kick off his second season with the Dallas Mavericks after being traded to Dallas as part of the Luka Doncic trade in 2025, and he already has a crucial challenge that he must ace as the team kicks off the Dusty May era. He has to become an elite perimeter defender to support Kyrie Irving as he makes his return.

Christie is already a strong defender, as is one of the team's better 3-and-D options, but he has to become even better upon Irving's return from an ACL tear at the beginning of next season. Irving hasn't played since March 3, 2025, and Christie only got to play 11 games with him before Irving suffered a season-ending injury at the end of the 2024-25 season.

Things are lining up for Christie to be Irving's backcourt partner in the starting lineup, and this is exactly why ESPN believes Christie has to step it up on the defensive end. He can't just be a good defender. He needs to be great.

Why ESPN thinks Christie must improve defensively

A group of ESPN's NBA insiders collaborated to write an article titled "Dallas Mavericks offseason recap, early 2026-27 season preview," and listed Christie as Dallas' biggest X factor. In that section, they dive into why he needs to become a stronger perimeter defender.

"He isn't yet a proven perimeter stopper, and Dallas will need him to fill that role with Kyrie Irving as his backcourt partner," ESPN's Zach Kram wrote.

The Mavericks need as much defense around Irving as possible, as he isn't known as the strongest perimeter defender and lacks size, and this becomes even more evident after he sat out an entire season. There's a chance the 34-year-old may have lost a step laterally after tearing his ACL, putting Christie in a crucial role to be the team's backcourt defensive stopper. He'll likely guard the other team's best guard to start most games, and Dallas needs him to thrive in this role.

If not, the Mavericks' point-of-attack defense could implode again. Dallas struggled to contain guards last season, and it was one of the many reasons that they lost 56 games.

Christie still has room to grow

Christie wasn't necessarily the problem, as he typically took on tough defensive assignments and brought great effort and energy, but he wasn't the solution either. He posted a 115.2 defensive rating, which ranked 11th of the team's 15 players. Dallas' defense was also slightly better when he was off the court, as teams scored 115.8 points per 100 possessions when he was off the court compared to 117.6 when he was playing.

These stats don't tell the entire story, as the Mavericks were crippled with injuries last season, but the team would certainly benefit from Christie becoming a stronger perimeter defender. Putting on more strength this offseason will help, and having better players around him will give him a boost as well.

He held opponents to 47.6 percent shooting from the field, which was a step up from 50.3 percent in his 32 games in Dallas from the season prior. Despite the improvement, the Mavericks need even more out of him.

Why Dallas needs Christie to become a lockdown defender

With Irving coming back, he is going to have a heavy defensive burden to carry. Dallas will be relying upon him to play sound defense on the perimeter, and answering that call could result in him earning a lucrative contract in free agency next summer (assuming he opts out of his contract if he hasn't received an extension by then).

If he doesn't take another step on defense, the Mavericks' point-of-attack defense could struggle once again. Perimeter defense is one area that Dallas didn't focus on much this offseason, and Christie must answer the call to become a stronger defender in his fifth season.

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