According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Dallas Mavericks cooled on Luka Doncic hiring his own team of training experts.
The Mavericks were “over” Doncic and didn’t want to continue their partnership with him anymore.
“With Dončić, meanwhile, one phrase you keep hearing, basically, is that the Mavericks are over him,” Stein wrote. “Dallas has likewise said to have cooled on its star’s insistence on hiring his own team of training experts — even though it was done at his own expense — to handle the bulk of his medical and nutritional needs separate from the club starting with the 2023-24 season.
“Dončić actually began assembling that team shortly after Dallas’ disastrous 38-44 season in 2022-23 in which the Mavericks followed up a wholly unexpected trip to the Western Conference finals by slipping all the way into the lottery. But his handpicked team quickly took on a role of even greater prominence than envisioned when the 2023-24 season began in the wake of the Mavericks’ abrupt removal of the team’s longtime athletic trainer Casey Smith — one of Dončić closest allies in the organization — from day-to-day duties in August 2023. Smith was brought in this season by the Knicks as their new vice president of sports medicine … with a strong recommendation from a certain former Maverick named Jalen Brunson.”
Doncic appeared in 422 games with the Mavericks. He averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists while shooting 47.0% from the field, 34.8% from beyond the arc and 74.8% from the free-throw line.
The Mavericks made the NBA Finals last season. They lost to the Boston Celtics in five games.
Doncic made five All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams with Dallas. He also won the 2019 Rookie of the Year Award and the 2024 scoring title.
The Los Angeles Lakers now have Doncic and LeBron James leading the way, while Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson will lead the Mavericks.
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