Mavs Notes: Offseason, Matthews, Team Salary

During his end-of-season remarks to the media on Wednesday, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged that it’s hard to put a positive spin on the season the team had. “You can’t put lipstick on a pig,” Carlisle said, per Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. “A 24-win season is a 24-win season.”

Still, Dennis Smith Jr. tried to take an optimistic view, telling reporters that he believes it was “a pretty successful year in terms of building for the future.” Smith is also looking forward to the Mavericks adding some reinforcements with their lottery pick and potentially via free agency or trade, observing that the team’s top decision-makers have “shown that they know talent.” For their part, those decision-makers are making it a top priority to add more weapons to Dallas’ lineup.

“Getting Rick ammunition is our No. 1 priority in the offseason,” president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. “And we’ve got a great opportunity in the draft. And in free agency, we’ll be extremely active. In our opinion, it was an extremely difficult year for the head coach.”

Here’s more on the Mavs:

• Asked on Wednesday about his contract option for 2018/19, Wesley Matthews deflected the question, telling reporters that he hasn’t thought about the decision yet (video link via Sefko). However, he did conclude his comments by stating that he has “no plans on going anywhere.” Matthews is considered very likely to opt into his $18.62MM salary.
• The Mavericks are believed to have finished about $3.3MM short of the NBA’s minimum salary floor, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That money will be split among the players on the club’s roster.
• Dirk Nowitzki, who announced earlier this week that he’ll return in 2018/19 for his 21st season with the Mavericks, said he didn’t want to “run from” the workplace misconduct scandal involving the club’s business offices, as Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News relays. “The investigation is going on and I’m here to help obviously in any way I can, but that did not factor into my decision at all,” Nowitzki said. “I just want to try to help as much as I can.”