NBA legends set to eat their words after completely forgetting about Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks are in the middle of one of their roughest stretches of the season, as they have lost 10 of their last 13 games, and the team has been dropping games at an alarming rate ever since Luka Doncic went down with a calf strain on Christmas Day.

They can't gain any sense of rhythm and anytime they secure a big win, like they did against the Oklahoma City Thunder last Friday night, it is almost always followed up with a disappointing loss as shown by their concerning loss to the Charlotte Hornets earlier this week. The energy of the team looks low in many of these losses to inferior teams, and their demons from last season and earlier this season of not bringing good energy at all times are returning at the worst possible moment.

Despite all of this, Dallas has looked like one of the best teams in the NBA when fully healthy, and the rest of the league should be frightened by what's coming for the Mavericks. They were playing their best basketball of the season leading up to when Doncic got injured on Christmas, but that run and Dallas' elite level of play that they displayed a month ago has seemingly been forgotten amid their struggles.

Mavericks completely snubbed in West's top-two discussion

Earlier this week, the NBA on TNT team of Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Ernie Johnson discussed who is the second-best team in the Western Conference behind the Thunder, and not a single one of them discussed the Mavs.

The Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, and Houston Rockets were all listed as potential top teams in the West, but no one considered bringing up Dallas. This could be seen as fair considering how poorly they've played without Doncic in the lineup, but once he returns, they are going to have the perfect opportunity to silence all the doubters and go on an end-of-season run to secure a prime playoff position.

It shouldn't be expected that Dallas is going to go on as big of a tear as they did last season after the trade deadline, but it's clear that Doncic is going to be as motivated as ever to help his team string some wins together once he returns to the floor. Doncic has heard all of the noise this year, and the media forgetting about the Mavs and considering them as underdogs once again will only motivate the team.

Dallas was underdogs in nearly every series that they played in last season's playoffs, and they proudly embraced this, proving everyone wrong and going on a run to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011. They didn't listen to the outside noise and elevated their play on both ends of the floor when they needed to most. Both Doncic and Kyrie Irving are known for taking their game to the next level once the postseason hits, and their poor recent stretch is going to command a level of urgency soon.

This season is going to be a much harder journey for the Mavericks to reach that level once again, but we'll have a better chance at gauging how deadly this team can be once Doncic comes back, which should be at some point in February.

All of this isn't to say that Dallas doesn't have some of their own issues recently including poor late-game execution, rebounding problems, and lackluster perimeter defense in certain scenarios, but it's unfair to fully judge them with barely being able to see a fully healthy squad. The Mavericks were unbelievably dangerous when they were nearly fully healthy in early December, and them returning to that level of play once again will silence the naysayers quickly.