Max Christie's bold Mavericks goal proves he's in the fast lane to stardom

The Dallas Mavericks are coming off one of their more interesting games in franchise history, as they faced off against former superstar Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time since Doncic was dealt to the Lakers for Anthony Davis on February 1. The Mavericks were still depleted as ever from an injury perspective in this game, but everyone involved understood the magnitude of this game, as both teams were playing with something to prove.

Dallas lost 107-99 in Doncic's first game against them, but fellow superstar Kyrie Irving wasn't going to let the Mavericks get blown out despite their lack of rim protection and size versus the West's fifth seed. Irving scored a game-high 35 points and played one of his best defensive games in a Mavericks uniform, and he easily had the best individual performance out of anyone on the court on Tuesday evening, even more so than Doncic and LeBron James.

Dallas' role players all had rough games offensively versus the Lakers, even if they still competed at a high level on the other end of the floor. Outside of Irving and Klay Thompson sometimes, the Mavericks don't have a tried and true bucket-getter on their roster until Anthony Davis returns from his adductor strain.

However, Dallas does have two role players that can potentially rise to that level in the future, and both of them shot horribly from the field on Tuesday night after a great recent stretch offensively. Those two players are P.J. Washington and Max Christie, with Christie's potential toward becoming a go-to shot creator being even greater than Washington's.

Max Christie’s habits with Mavericks point to an All-Star future

Both of these players were bound to assume a greater offensive workload in the post-Doncic era, with Washington bullying his way to the rim more often recently, and Christie playing a more assertive role on offense compared to his Laker days. Having just turned 22 years old though, Christie has quietly proved he's likely the most potential-packed player on Dallas' roster, and this notion isn't just stemming from his on-court production.

Christie recently beat Irving to the arena ahead of Dallas' victory over the New Orleans Pelicans a few days ago, which is extremely commendable considering Irving always leads by example with his preparation and is almost always first to the arena on game day. Irving playfully joked about this in a post-game interview with NBA TV after the game, but he understands how important those sorts of habits can be for a player's career.

Christie is making it a goal to be one of the first players to the arena moving forward, and this is a goal he had for himself in Los Angeles as well. He was typically the second player to the arena behind only James during his time with the Lakers, and his dedication to arrive early shows how fully focused he is to his craft.

Despite having two games in a row where his production offensively has taken a dip, Christie has played the best basketball of his career since being traded to Dallas at the beginning of this month which has earned him a starting job, and he's showcased a skillset of being able to create shots for himself at all three levels. Christie has a much deeper shot creation bag than almost any Mavericks fans thought heading into this trade, and while this isn't a justification for trading Doncic, Christie's production coupled with his off-court habits scream that he is going to develop into an All-Star level player at some point in the future.

It's clear that Christie has taken this trade in stride and is trying to prove to the Lakers what they are missing out on, and he hasn't done anything to dissuade Mavericks fans from believing that he can't deepen his playmaking and shot creation bag even further as his career continues. Christie is already a stellar point of attack defender, and he has an elite first step to pair with quick-twitch leaping ability.

Christie is fully bought in to being a Maverick, and he's embraced one of the more difficult situations a young role player like himself could be in at this stage of their career with open arms. This can be seen with how seriously Christie has taken his approach both mentally and physically since this trade, which can be evidenced by how he took the entire night of the Doncic trade to mentally lock in for his new situation.

"I got zero seconds of sleep that night. I was up from 12 [a.m.] to 8:15 [a.m.] I had a flight the next morning at 8:30 to go to Dallas," Christie said following Tuesday night's loss in Los Angeles.