Rick Carlisle doesn’t need much time to remind Mavericks fans what slipped through their hands.
The former Dallas coach, who won a title with the franchise in 2011 and later built more success with the Indiana Pacers, recently went on the “Draymond Green Show” and spoke plainly about two players he once coached in Dallas: Jalen Brunson and Luka Doncic. Both are now established as top-10 talents in the league, and both left the Mavericks behind in ways that still look costly.
Brunson, who went on to lead the New York Knicks to their first NBA championship since 1973 and was named Finals MVP, earned Carlisle’s praise for the way he solves problems on the floor.
"He's a guy that figures s**t out, his resourcefulness as a player is one of his great strengths," Carlisle said on Brunson. "He adjusts to the situation. Jay [Wright, Brunson's coach at Villanova] was talking about [how] he was a stubborn competitor, he just had this belief system in himself."
Carlisle was just as forceful when the conversation turned to Doncic. He admitted he wasn’t even sure what position Doncic would play when he first arrived, saying he initially thought the nearly 6-foot-8 guard might be a three-man before Doncic insisted he was a point guard. After 8 or 10 games, Dallas moved him there.
"From a talent standpoint, an ability, and everything else, he's the most unique player I've ever worked with. I mean, he's just so, so good, and he's a killer competitor, too.
"You put the right guys around him, I defy you to figure out a way to beat him, 'cause he is smart as hell, he knows every trick in the book, and he knows how to win.
The part that really lands, though, is what Carlisle said next.
"Those two guys, if they had stayed together, wow. The possibilities of things that could've happened."
It’s a brutal reminder of how Dallas got here. Brunson left in free agency.
Doncic was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. A year later, after Nico Harrison was dismissed, the Mavericks moved Davis to the Washington Wizards for Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Tyus Jones, and Marvin Bagley III, plus five total draft picks.
None of the pieces from that Davis deal remain, with the new regime rerouting them to bring in Santi Aldama, Sergio De Larrea, Tarik Biberovic, and Marcus Sasser.
For a team that once drafted Brunson and Doncic and had them both in the same building, that’s a hard sequence to shake. Carlisle’s words made sure of that.
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