Dallas Mavericks Welcome an Offseason of Uncertainty

The bowels of the American Airlines Center carried an unmistakable stench upon the Mavericks early elimination from the playoffs.

Jason Terry classified Dallas' defending chances as a "longshot," given their roster, and made repeated mention of his preseason preference to keep Dallas' championship team intact. He stressed the importance of "personnel," and lifted any semblance of a veil on his discussion regarding the direction of the franchise. 

Dirk Nowitzki shrugged off the ruse that last summer's moves could be seen as anything other than what they were, whilst lamenting Dallas' lack of shot creators and processing the emotions of a season in forfeit. He then went on to take an oddly noncommittal stance on the return of Rick Carlisle, in which Nowitzki seemed to praise only last year's destination and Carlisle's efforts, without much mention of his personality or process, much less an endorsement for his future.

One of those two captains may not be back next season, and the Maverick fates of Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Brendan Haywood, Delonte West, Vince Carter—and apparently Carlisle—also hang in the offseason's balance.

Things in Dallas are poised for an uncharacteristic turmoil; Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson may have opened up cap space and given themselves a chance to chase Deron Williams this summer, but in the process they've also upended the core of their roster.

That path is logical and reasonable from a team-building standpoint, but no less daunting now that the Mavs are finally peering into an offseason that's a bit longer than anticipated.

Whether Williams is the big fish or white whale remains to be seen, and what Dallas' contingencies are we cannot know. But Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden (or Cuban and Nelson, depending on who you ask) brought about the end of the Mavericks as we know them. As we celebrate the charismatic rise of one of this year's championship hopefuls, we must too take notice of the potential end of last year's victors.

In December—with the decisions to let Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson leave in free agency—the Mavericks took their first step toward uncertainty.

Now they stand engulfed in it. And though Nowitzki will still give Dallas its general shape and character, when the season begins anew in November, we could be looking upon a Mavericks squad a bit less chatty, a bit less cerebral, a bit less versatile or a bit less deep.

All of that remains to be seen and decided, but until the offseason formally begins, Dallas' only reassurance is the darkness of that very uncertainty—the realm of possibility, however slim, that a summer of turmoil could guide a franchise toward something more.