Mavericks' Khris Middleton situation is more promising than it seems

Exhale, Mavericks fans. Khris Middleton having a few good games will not turn this team into a postseason contender, causing it to lose out on a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. In fact, Khris Middleton deciding not to seek a buyout and instead sticking with the Mavericks through the end of the year has way more positives than negatives.

Middleton is a well-respected veteran with legit championship experience — the Bucks would not have won the NBA title in 2021 without him. It's pretty much always good to have guys like that on the roster, and his prior relationship with Jason Kidd is another plus.

Plus, Middleton is 34 years old; he's certainly on the backend of his career, but still has some juice left in the tank. If he's interested in playing for the Mavericks (which he obviously is, considering he decided to stay instead of chase a ring somewhere else), then he could make a pretty perfect role player to flank Cooper Flagg next season.

Khris Middleton could be a perfect offseason free agent target

Middleton is making $33 million right now as he plays out the last days of a 3-year, $93 million contract. When he's a free agent this summer, he obviously won't command that kind of money at this point in his career, but the Mavericks should absolutely try to bring him back on a 2-year, $20-ish million deal.

Middleton, even at this stage in his career, would be a splendid offensive depth piece alongside Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving, who could als slide into a sixth man role to give the second unit some scoring pop next year.

The Dallas Mavericks aren't in a full-on rebuild, so it should be assumed they will try to improve in the offseason. Year two Cooper Flagg is already going to be a top 15 player in the NBA. Kyrie Irving coming back will open up so much for Flagg and the rest of the team. Those guys, plus Max Christie, PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Naji Marshall is at least the outline of a competitive team.

Bringing in Khris Middleton on a low-risk contract won't boost that team to contending status, but he would be another wing scorer to complement Coop, and you really can't have too many of those. Flagg will be good enough next year to be tank-proof, so the front office might as well start building good teams around him now.