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The Dallas Mavericks wrapped up their preseason schedule with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks Friday night. Despite a relatively mundane record (1-3), the preseason allowed Kyrie Irving a chance to prove he’s returning to form and showed how Zaccharie Risacher can contribute when he’s playing at his best (which in fairness, took until the final game).
With the preseason behind them and the regular season just days away, Dallas continues to handle some roster business. This is the time of year when moves around the edges are made and players on the cusp are either retained or let free. In the case of the Mavericks, they made two moves involving familiar names – one, the face of the franchise and the other a rotation piece at the end of last season.
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John Poulakidas
The Mavericks gave Poulakidas a two-way contract on March 2, 2026. This was after Dallas traded Anthony Davis and unequivocally ushed in the Cooper Flagg era. With Dallas’ season effectively over by early March, it made sense to take a few flyers and Poulakidas was one of them. For a team that shot below league average from beyond the arc, Poulakidas was a welcome sight and seemingly would have a chance on a Mavs’ team that struggled from deep.
In 13 games with the Mavericks, Poulakidas averaged just shy of 20 minutes per game, and offered up 8.8 points and 2.3 assists per game across those outings. He was everything the team needed as a shooter, having connected on 57.1% of his shots inside the arc and 40.3% from deep. Despite that, Poulakidas’ time as a Maverick has come to an end as of Saturday afternoon. As part of their effort to get to the proper number of roster spots, Poulakidas was waived.
If you’re wondering whether or not this move was in direct correlation to keeping Dwight Powell, it seems to be only part of the story. Even with the departure of Poulakidas, Dallas has to eliminate another standard contract to be in compliance with the 15-man maximum, which means Powell himself could be dropped, is someone else isn’t moved out in order to retain him.
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Cooper Flagg
In the least surprising news of the offseason, the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/mavs-roster-moves-cooper-flagg-020728062.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-18 02:07:00
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