On Friday, looking forward to a new start, Davis vowed to take up Dončić's mantle as the face of the Mavericks. "It's a business. I get what Luka was to this franchise, to this

Doncic, who had dragged an otherwise unremarkable Mavericks team through the Western Conference, became the face of their failure. Dallas coach Jason Kidd was forced to come out and defend his maligned star, even though without Doncic, the Mavericks were a faded Kyrie Irving and a bunch of role players.