The Mavericks’ path through the Emirates NBA Cup is set, and it drops them into a West Group A that looks anything but ordinary.
Dallas will share the group with the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns in the fourth edition of the league’s mid-season tournament. On paper, it’s a mix of heavyweight talent, young upside and one team that struggled badly a year ago. The combined record of the group last season was 199-211, a .485 winning percentage, but that number hides a pretty wide gap between the teams involved.
The Jazz finished as the West’s worst team at 22-62, while Dallas wasn’t far behind at 26-56. At the other end of the spectrum, Denver went 54-28 and Houston finished 52-30, and Phoenix reached the playoffs at 45-37.
The Mavs will open group play at home against the Rockets on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. CT, then host the Jazz on Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. Dallas is also part of NBC’s double-header on Nov. 24 against the Nuggets.
If the Mavericks survive group play, the knockout round picture is already mapped out. Eight teams will move on to the single-elimination stage, with the quarterfinals set for Dec. 4-5, the semifinals scheduled for Dec. 8 or 9, and the championship on Dec. 11 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Dallas hasn’t made much noise in the tournament so far. The franchise has advanced out of the knockout rounds only once, doing so in the 2024-25 season before falling to the top-seeded and eventual runner-up Oklahoma City Thunder in the first elimination round. Overall, the Mavericks are 6-7 all-time in NBA Cup play.
There’s also a fresh layer to this group for a Mavericks team working through a new era under head coach Dusty May, with Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg joined by a cast of newcomers.
Utah’s backcourt will be built around No. 2 overall rookie Darryn Peterson, alongside last season’s No. 5 pick Ace Bailey and emerging playmaker Keyonte George. Denver still runs through Nikola Jokic, the three-time MVP, with newly-crowned All-Star Jamal Murray alongside him.
Houston brings Kevin Durant in his 19th year, plus Fred VanVleet, who is expected back after missing the entire 2025-26 season with a torn ACL in his right knee, and a core that also includes Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. Phoenix, meanwhile, added athletic forward Miles Bridges to a group that already features Devin Booker and Jalen Green.
In Other News...
Mavericks Face An Early Dusty May Test They Cannot Afford To Fail
The Mavericks are heading into the 2026-27 season with little room for a slow start, and the early schedule will say plenty about how ready they are to move past a rough year. Dallas opens with five of its first eight games against playoff teams from the previous season, a stiff opening stretch for a club trying to reset under new head coach Dusty May after a 56-loss campaign that left plenty to clean up.
The context around that early test only adds to the pressure. Kyrie Irvings ACL injury and the trade of Anthony Davis helped define a difficult 2025-26 season, and the Mavericks now have to prove that the new direction can produce something sturdier than last years instability. May does not need October to decide the season, but he does need the team to show signs quickly that another down year is not already taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Face A Real Brandon Williams Problem If He Walks
Dallas has spent the summer trying to make sure its backcourt does not get too thin, and the work has already included bringing in Sergio De Larrea and Marcus Sasser. Those additions give the Mavericks some structure behind the starting group, but they are more about adding options than solving everything at once, especially with Brandon Williams still sitting in unrestricted free agency.
Williams remains the tricky part of the equation because his production from last season is not something Dallas can simply assume will be replaced by committee. The front office is preparing for that possibility, and the concern is not just depth for depths sake, but whether the roster can absorb another loss in a spot where the market has already begun to stir. [Read more 🡒]
Dereck Livelys Return Has Created A Mavericks Problem They Didnt Expect
Dereck Lively IIs road back is already looking more complicated than the Mavericks probably hoped when the offseason began. The young center is recovering from a right foot injury that required two major surgeries, and even with training camp approaching, he is not expected to be fully healthy right away. For Dallas, that creates an unusual holdover from the last roster build: the team has a promising big man working his way back, but not necessarily back into the same role he left.
The wrinkle is that the job may not be waiting for him. Daniel Gafford is still on Dallas roster, which means Livelys return could come with a backup assignment rather than a straightforward slide back into the starting lineup. How quickly he gets there, and whether roster moves change the equation, remains unsettled, leaving the Mavericks to manage both his recovery and the shape of the frontcourt at the same time. [Read more 🡒]