11 Players the Dallas Mavericks held onto for too long

10. Trey Burke

The Mavs originally acquired Burke in the Kristaps Porzingis trade in January of 2019. The six-foot point guard was in and out of the Knicks rotation and hoping for a consistent role in Dallas. He found it over the final 14 games of the regular season where Burke averaged 11.8 points and 3.3 assists in 20.0 minutes each night.

He parlayed that into a contract with the 76ers in the 2019 offseason, but Burke struggled in Philly and was waived in February.

The 27-year-old re-joined the Mavericks for the bubble after Willie Cauley-Stein announced he would not participate. He went off during the restart. Burke started by scoring 31 against the Rockets and averaged 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 steals in 26.1 minutes per game against the Clippers in the playoffs.

The six-foot guard played the best basketball of his career inside the bubble, and it helped him earn a three-year $10 million contract from the Mavs in the 2020 offseason. Sadly, Burke could never repeat his Disney World success. He spent the next two seasons in Dallas, but his playing time and production dropped off mightily before the Mavericks traded him to the Rockets in the 2022 offseason.

Trey Burke was a negative on the defensive end of the floor but could get a bucket. He spent parts of four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, despite producing a 0.2 value over replacement player (VORP). Burke got buckets at the right times, and the franchise just could not quit the undersized guard.