Vibe Check: 41 Days Out
Luka and Kyrie love, a thing about continuity, plus an update from Greece
Today's update comes from my retreat on the island of Karpathos, a windsurfing paradise in Greece and my last chance to recharge before the new season kicks off. On Sunday, after wrapping up my first session of the week, I saw a post on Luka Dončić's Instagram that made me smile—a photo of him and Kyrie Irving embracing, posted more than a month before the season, 5,000 miles away in Slovenia. It got me thinking about the Mavericks' vibes. A day later, reflecting on that, another Mavs legend came to mind. Tomorrow will mark 41 days until the new NBA season begins on October 22nd—and yesterday, when I started writing this, it had been 41 days since I published my first deep dive on Quentin Grimes.
This week, I won't have enough time or space to write much, but hours spent alone on the windsurf board offer plenty of moments to reflect, think, and plan the next steps for this space as we get closer to the season's start. But most of you know me well enough to expect that even a feel-good vibes digginbasketball article can't go without some data and a video breakdown. And I promise that this video will get you feeling good and hyped for the new Mavericks season.
Before we get there, let me give a quick summary of what we've accomplished together—I couldn't have done this without your support, encouragement, and the valuable feedback many of you have provided so far—in the first 41 days of digginbasketball. This is the 15th article written, with 9 player profiles, a detailed analysis of the Mavs rotation, and a hint as to why the Mavs offense should be top five next season. We also explored Kyrie Irving's timeline and speculated about the number of peak years he has left, comparing him to 30 players, both current and past, and released the first volume of the special Analytics Guides.
What’s next?
Until the season starts, expect more Player Cards, additional team analysis pieces, and, of course, the next volumes in the Analytics Guides. I’ll also start a thread or a chat (still figuring out the best way) to engage with digginbasketball subscribers who want to share ideas, suggest topics for future articles, and discuss data and analysis more actively.
Once the season starts, we'll shift into full-season mode, with daily game previews and post-game observations delivered straight to your inbox—content that many of you enjoyed on Twitter last year.
The more we share, the more we have
Now, about that feel-good video... how about a four-minute highlight reel of Dončić and Irving passing the ball to each other?
As I saw Dončić's Instagram post, I remembered the notes I made throughout last season. They were bookmarks of various Dončić and Irving give-and-go and other plays that were meant to end up in an article but they didn't make it because there was too much game coverage during the Finals run. For me personally, the most exciting part of following Mavs basketball over the last season and a half was watching the relationship between the two superstars grow.
You could see it in their embraces at the end of games, in how they call each other brothers or 'hermanos,' and in the praise and respect they show whenever they talk about one another. It translates onto the court through the simple plays—the give-and-gos, quick swing passes, soccer-like passes into empty space, just knowing and trusting each other. Irving might be the first teammate Dončić trusts completely, respects the most in terms of skills, and sees as an equal. He also knows that if he’s willing to give up the ball, Irving will get it back to him at just the right moment. Even if those plays don't happen as frequently as some fans might hope, they are often game-defining momentum changers when they do.
I’ve often written and tweeted about the importance of continuity and how the Mavericks have lacked it compared to the league's best teams, like Denver, OKC, Minnesota, and Boston. It's not just about consistent lineups; even looking at the best player two-man combos, Dončić never had an extensive run with his co-stars. Kristaps Porzingis was not good or healthy enough for that to happen, and Jalen Brunson left just as he began to show he could reach that level.
With a deep playoff run that almost counts as a mini regular season, Dončić and Irving have now played over 2,500 minutes together (1,741 in the regular season and 766 in the playoffs, for a total of 2,507 to be exact). While it's still far from the 10,000 minutes that other superstar pairings who won recent NBA titles have logged—like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, or Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton—it still brings hope of stability and continuity for the first time in Dončić's tenure with the Mavericks.
The Mavericks have found another long-term piece in Dereck Lively II, and if we trust the data indicating Irving can maintain his superstar level of play for at least a couple more seasons, they might just build enough momentum and continuity to win their second Larry O'Brien trophy.