Luka Doncic are aspirații de campionat pentru Dallas Mavericks când începe sezonul al cincilea

After the shortest offseason the team has had since winning the championship in 2011, the Dallas Mavericks are back and preparing for the start of the 2022-23 NBA season. While the team’s offseason was short, All-Star guard Luka Doncic’s summer was even shorter after playing for the Slovenian national team.

Even though he hasn’t spent much time away from the game and off the court, Doncic still has the exact expectations for his team at the start of every season. He aims to win a championship and return the Larry O’Brien trophy to Dallas.

“Always the goal was the same for me, for the team,” Doncic said during his media day interview. “We’re trying to win the championship. That’s the only goal we have, and that’s what we are going to work for.”

The Mavericks made a surprising run to the Western Conference Finals last season, eventually falling four games to one to the Golden State Warriors. Still, the unexpected leap forward gives the Mavericks something to build upon this season.

Replicating last season’s success won’t be easy, though. The Western Conference will see a lot of star players returning from injuries, fresh and ready to compete. Doncic understands that the road ahead won’t be easy, but he’s learned valuable lessons from playing against and watching the Warriors.

“First of all, you’ve got to get to the playoffs,” Doncic said. “I think this year is even harder in the West, but you learn. You see how Golden State played throughout all the playoffs. They play as a team, they play amazing, they play amazing defense. You’ve just got to look up to them and see how they played and learn from it.”

Those things are easier said than done, of course. The Mavericks have several new players to integrate into their rotation, which could present some challenges, especially early on. According to Doncic, the team doesn’t have time to wait and must start the season better than last season when it didn’t find its footing until well into January.

“Hopefully, we don’t start like last year,” Doncic said. “But it’s not how you start; it’s how you end. We ended pretty good. It was a good run, not the best, obviously, but it was a good run. But we’ve got to start way better than last year.”

It may be months before the Mavericks find their identity this season. But as Doncic said, it’s how the team finishes that matters. His goal is to end the season on top, adding another championship banner to the rafters of the American Airlines Center.