The Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson question will probably haunt Dallas basketball forever, because every year it gets less theoretical and more painful.
When asked what could have been if he and Brunson had stayed together, Doncic did not dodge it. He did not turn it into some empty “that’s basketball” answer. He simply acknowledged the obvious.
“We have improved a lot every year,” Doncic said. “We are not the players we were before. It would have been very good, for sure.”
Doncic and Brunson played together in Dallas from 2018 to 2022, growing from promising young guards into a dangerous backcourt. By the time the Mavericks reached the 2022 Western Conference Finals, the partnership had already started to look like something real. Then Brunson left for the New York Knicks in free agency, and everything changed.
At the time, Dallas could still talk itself into the idea that Brunson was a very good player, but maybe not a franchise-changing one. That argument no longer exists. Brunson became a star in New York, then became the face of the Knicks’ championship run, winning Finals MVP after leading the franchise to its first NBA title since 1973. The Knicks beat the Spurs in five games, with Brunson scoring 45 points in the title-clinching Game 5.
So, Doncic is right. Neither player is the same as he was in Dallas. Doncic became one of the league’s biggest offensive forces and is now with the Lakers. Brunson became New York’s captain, closer and championship hero. Together, in their primes, with the right roster around them? That would not have been “interesting.” That would have been terrifying.
The cruel part for Mavericks fans is that they actually saw the early version of it. They had the chemistry. They had the contrast. Doncic brought the size, vision and supernatural shot creation. Brunson brought the craft, balance, patience and late-clock calm. One bent the game with genius. The other solved it with footwork and nerve.
And now, after Brunson’s title in New York, the “what if” has officially graduated from barbershop debate to organizational scar tissue. Former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently admitted Dallas underestimated what Brunson could become before he left for the Knicks. That may be the simplest explanation, but it does not make it any less brutal.
