"He has certainly outplayed his $1.8 million contract... It will cost them dearly" - Bobby Marks gives a blunt review of Dallas Mavericks' tricky offseason

After a 4-1 loss to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference finals, the Dallas Mavericks will now next be seen in action only in the 2022-23 NBA season. The upcoming offseason for the Mavericks includes dealing with Jalen Brunson's contract, which came to an end this season. Brunson will now be an unrestricted free agent, which simply means the Mavericks cannot match a contract he gets from another team to keep him.

ESPN's NBA front office insider and former assistant general manager for the Brooklyn Nets, Bobby Marks, talked about the Mavericks' woes going into the 2022 offseason in his guide to the offseason video:

"(Dallas Mavericks) beat Utah, destroy Phoenix in Game 7 and let's face it, you run into a team in Golden State that's playing the best basketball of any of the four teams that were in these conference finals here and they will be an extremely tough out if they play Boston but, on to Dallas.

"It's going to get expensive...The focus, of course, will be what happens with Jalen Brunson. He has certainly outplayed his $1.8 million contract...this team in Dallas is over the salary cap, they are $6 million over the luxury tax, Brunson is an unrestricted free-agent, Dallas can resign him and exceed the salary cap, they can exceed the luxury cap threshold but as I said, it will cost them dearly"

The Dallas Mavericks currently hold the Bird rights to Jalen Brunson, and like most teams in the NBA, are over the soft salary cap. The Mavericks are projected to have a $55 million tax payout for the offseason, should they re-sign Brunson with a salary of $20 million.

Jalen Brunson's career-year with the Dallas Mavericks came in the nick of time

Jalen Brunson has exponentially improved his game in the last two years, and is now a reliable scoring option for the Dallas Mavericks.

For a player who wasn't guaranteed a payout in the final year of his four-year rookie contract, Jalen Brunson has substantial leverage as an unrestricted free-agent going into the 2022 off-season. His one-year extension of $1.8 million looks small if we consider what he has accomplished this season and, most notably, what he did in the absence of Luka Dončić in the first round of the playoffs.

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Brunson's numbers for the season are 16.3/3.9/4.8 on 50-37-84 shooting splits. Compared to a year before, his ppg saw a ~33% increase, but compared to two years before, there is a ~100% increase, a remarkable feat for a team which lives and dies by Luka Dončić as the primary ball-handler and scorer.