Luka Doncic is having, by any standards, an outstanding season, averaging 34PPG 8RPG and 9APG, whilst his partner Kyrie Irving is on 26PPG, 5RPG and 5APG.
Normally, a back-court this productive would put you in serious championship contention, if not make you nailed on favourites, yet the Mavs sit in 8th seed, and hover around the play-in zone.
For context, Luka is currently averaging more points, assists and rebounds that Steph Curry did in 2017, and same for Kyrie with Klay Thompson in the same season.
Yet, Curry and Klay became one of the best back-court pairings the league has ever witnessed and won multiple championships, whilst Luka and Kyrie are struggling to make a deep play-off run.
So why can’t these two NBA greats do it?
Luka and Kyrie have directly conflicting styles. Curry would shoot of the dribble whilst Klay would shoot of the catch, therefore the same play stretches the floor as the two take their shots in complementary manners.
Luka and Kyrie both want the ball in their hands. Luka and Kyrie both want to shoot off the dribble or drive to the basket. Neither are prolific catch-and-shoot players. Kyrie has learned to facilitate this recently but is not a league leader at it.
Stephs brother, Seth Curry, is on the roster for this Mavs side. Seth Curry is one of the leagues premier catch-and-shoot players, but his minutes are limited due to the two super star guards who sit above him in the pecking order.
A way around this would be to play a small ball lineup, shifting Luka to small forward to accommodate Seth at the two guard.
But this still does not alleviate the issue of style. Despite coming from the Euro League, Luka tends to run isolation plays as well as pick and rolls for himself. This is exactly how Kyrie plays. Whereas the Splash Bros happy play within team plays and rarely run isolation plays, capitalising on the strengths of the team.
Luka is currently 4th in MVP voting, but his chances of actually winning the award are being hindered by the results of the Mavs. Historically the championship winning team very rarely has the league MVP on their side.
The Mavs also lack a strong inside presents. Kristaps Porzingis was meant to be the solution to this, but him and Luka simply did not work together, hence the new pivot towards a small ball lineup.
Porzingis has found himself at the Celtics, where he is now a vital piece of the puzzle that has lead the Celtics to the best record in the league.
Kyrie is now in his early thirties and Luka is in his 7th season in the league. Whilst Luka is still young it is now becoming do or bust for the franchise, and need to capitalise on him before he decides to move on.