According to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the Dallas Mavericks have their eyes set on a solid point guard who can fill-in until Kyrie Irving is medically cleared to return from his torn ACL.

Ideally, Dallas wants the future fill-in to be complementary to Irving. This would either be playing alongside the veteran NBA champion or backing the 33-year-old up.

Even with the limited cap room they have, Dallas reportedly will entice players with playing time and having a prove-it situation with their temporary starting role. This could be geared towards veteran athletes who are picking between league minimums that want a legit shot at proving their worth.

Last season, Tyus Jones signed a veteran minimum contract with the Phoenix Suns with the hopes of landing a bigger contract in free agency.

The rumor-mill has already circulated names the Mavericks could land; Chris Paul and Malcolm Brogdon have been listed, as they’ll both be unrestricted free agents this offseason.

When superstar Luka Doncic found out he was traded, he was immediately sadden and incredibly. In fact, the rage he felt made him throw his phone across the room.

With his TV not working, he laid in bed watching a movie. Everything was peaceful, until it wasn’t. While on his iPad, he had discovered he’d been traded.

“I was actually in the bed,” Doncic said. “My TV wasn’t working so I was on my iPad watching a movie about to go to sleep. First thing I said, probably three times, was, ‘Is this [an] April 1st [joke]?'”

While trying to process the entirety of this situation, the prominent emotion he felt was sadness.

“Sadness, mostly,” Doncic said. “I was still in shock. Like, crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”

His plan was to pull a “Dirk Nowitzki” and remain loyal to the Dallas Mavericks for his entire career. This is the team that traded for him in the 2018 NBA Draft – a significant moment for both the franchise and one of the world’s best players.

Doncic now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, with LeBron James, in hopes of reaching the NBA Finals. A spot he was originally in last postseason.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, general manager Nico Harrison was forced to do the behind closed doors press conference to talk about the Luka Doncic trade and the future of the team.

Owner Patrick Dumont essentially forced Harrison to do it, in fact, he enforced it. Not only was it closed off to the public, but Dumont made sure they couldn’t record the conversation. However, he permitted select reporters to publish the transcripts of the conversation.

“My understanding is Nico Harrison didn’t want to do this closed door roundtable,” said Shams Charania. “This was not his idea. This was something that was enforced by their owner Patrick Dumont.”

The Dallas Mavericks continue to try to do damage control even months after trading the most beloved player in organization history since Dirk Nowitzki.