The fact that the NBA season lasts 82 games often leads to misunderstandings. A false belief: the misconception that there’s always plenty of time to react, to get back on track.
That’s why the first twenty games of the regular season tend to be taken too lightly. Almost like a training camp. A drill where the record is something to be taken with a grain of salt.
And that’s why defeats and initial bad streaks are often downplayed. Mathematics doesn’t: it counts them all the same.
And the Dallas Mavericks, a team that started October with hope and certain aspirations (not for titles, but to fight for the top of the standings) and with ten games behind them, are second to last in the strong Conference, the West, only ahead of the calamitous New Orleans Pelicans.
And… yes, Kyrie Irving is missing. Yes, Copper Flagg needs time. Yes, Klay Thompson is so awful he could play in New Orleans. And yes, a point guard is missing…
Is Dallas missing a point guard?
Let’s move on to this last point. Yes, we’re missing a point guard. A great point guard who can run the game with the quality and composure that most of our players possess. point guards headlines on the circuit. A level in the direction that D’Angelo Russell (always more combo that point) stopped giving a long time ago, and a role that is too big for Jaden Hardy, a streaky player.
This problem was known since the summer. A problem they were going to have to live with, at least, until Irving returned from his injury and got back into playing shape. But while Jason Kidd sings the All I Want for Christmas Is you and try to act like Wise Man with Cooper FlaggThe (temporary) solution might not be so far off or so unorthodox.
A point guard doing his job. Nothing more, nothing less. As proof, just take a closer look at that old reliable: advanced statistics.
This (ten games… not many, but not enough either) tells us that there’s one player who, although he plays, perhaps should play more. That player is Brandon Williams. The name that Kidd himself warned he was going to change the font of Arial blackBut what stands out for now is not because of his coach’s blind faith, but because of what he manages to do in the limited time he is given.
The Mavericks, despite having proven offensive players like Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, and the newcomer Cooper Flagg, are –there’s the fact– the worst attack in NBA historyBecause up there – where they suffer a monumental traffic jam – the ball moves with the fluidity of Mumbai traffic on any given day.
Traffic experiences some decongestion when Brandon Williams is on the court and gets the ball.
They’re not that far away
On the other hand—and this is also interesting—they have the fourth-best defense (109,9), but their scoring inefficiency is so enormous that their defensive solidity isn’t enough to win games. Because solidity isn’t brilliance. And the 2025-26 Mavs aren’t the 24-25 Magic.
Nor should they aspire to be.
However, if we consider the net ratingThe Texas team clearly performs better when Hardy and Williams are on the track ahead of Christie and Russell. And no, we’re not talking about a simple role swap.
But when you know Russell isn’t going to be your point guard of the future (straight to the bench – and to the winter transfer market? – as soon as Kyrie returns), Perhaps this is not the time to beat around the bush or create absurd hierarchies while defeats accumulate in an unrelenting trickle.
Yesterday, to the relief of half of Texas, the Mavs beat the Washington Wizards 111-105 in a game where D’Lo only needed to jump in with a headband that read ‘I Hate Mavs’. He started, but Kidd couldn’t keep him on for more than 17 minutes, as in that time he accumulated a net rating -18, with 0 out of 6 three-pointers in his usual boycott of shot selection.
The bench came to the rescue, and in particular one Brandon Williams, who in 26 minutes racked up 14 points, 6 assists, 4 steals and a sensational +24.
Brandon Williams tonight
14 PTS
AST 6
2 SBR
5 STL‼️
+ 24
— Undefeated when BWill scores 14+ this year pic.twitter.com/XfEDDZ4zsj
— MavsMuse (@MavsMuse) November 9, 2025
A brave step; a logical step
As I was saying Josh Bowe for D Magazine In August, Williams was one of the few memorable things that happened in Dallas in the months following Luka Doncic’s departure.
In his third year in the NBA, he posted career-best numbers, taking advantage of a string of injuries that forced the coach to include the last-ranked player in the rotation. In 33 games, he averaged 8,3 points, 2,3 assists, and 1,8 rebounds in 14,8 minutes per game. After the All-Star break, his stats skyrocketed: 14,6 points per game with 54,8% shooting from the field and 39,5% from three-point range.
Williams proved to be very capable of scoring frequently, in a variety of ways, and efficiently: he made 48,6% of his three-pointers in catch and shoot And he scored half of his points from inside the paint. Of Williams’ 188 field goal attempts in 2024-25, nearly half were in the restricted area; a perimeter player with an outstanding ability to slice through defenses and create his own shot near the rim.
The next step for him to grow as a player should be to maximize his innate ability to create shots and use it to generate scoring opportunities for his teammates. However, his lack of playing time and established team dynamics at the start of the season is currently preventing him from taking that next step.
And yet, it manages to be, if not a game-changer, at least a positive factor in a Mavs market where it is urgent to reverse the trend before they lose a healthy habit that is then incredibly difficult to recover: the habit of winning.
Dallas Mavericks 2025-26 (Advanced Stats)
PLAYERPMINOFFRTGDEFRTGNETRTGTS%USG%MOUSSA CISSE69.2102.589.313.361.215.7JADEN HARDY911.1105.897.78.152.419.0BRANDON WILLIAMS816.5104.898.66.251.924.2DERECK LIVELY II316.9110.999.211.874.312.2CALEB MARTIN8986.6100.0-13.438.110.3DWIGHT POWELL910.2104.4105.2-0.973.110.1KLAY THOMPSON92091.5107.3-15.842.119.7NAJI MARSHALL1024.5101.7108.3-6.659.815.5PJ WASHINGTON1033.9101.1108.7-7.652.820.8ANTHONY DAVIS529.9102.5109.3-6.858.727.8MAX CHRISTIE1029.9109.0111.2-2.265.515.6COOPER FLAG1032.599.0111.8-12.849.520.7D’ANGELO RUSSELL1021.6105.2112.1-6.949.128.1DANIEL GAFFORD519.6104.9113.6-8.776.813.7RYAN NEMBHARD59100.0120.0-20.049.019.3
(Cover photo by Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)
