Last week, Stephen A. Smith made a rather bold proclamation that the Dallas Mavericks should be viewed as the number one threat to the OKC Thunder and their repeat dreams next season.
With stars like Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson in tow, coupled with the addition of the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Cooper Flagg, excitement surrounding the Mavs is certainly high heading into 2025-26.
Add all this to the fact that they boasted the best record against Oklahoma City in head-to-head bouts last season (3-1), and it may be easy to see why Smith confidently describes Dallas as "clearly" their most formidable foe moving forward.
That said, even with the widespread intrigue in the ball club, as things presently stand, there are still plenty of reasons to believe these comments are a bit of a reach.
After all, they just wrapped up a playoff-less campaign in 2024-25 and have their primary star, Kyrie Irving, en route to potentially missing the majority, if not all, of next year.
However, over the last few weeks, LeBron James' name has been surprisingly linked to Dallas as a possible destination option if he were to part ways with the Lakers at any time soon, a shakeup that would undoubtedly make them far more menacing, both as a threat to the Thunder and others out in the Western Conference, in the immediate future.
Now, while mere rumors and hearsay reports have been the main source of such chatter, NBA insider Brian Windhorst's recent update on the situation between James and Los Angeles is something that may very well strengthen Stephen A.'s original take on Dallas possibly becoming OKC's number one threat.
LeBron James has Dallas ties that could come at expense of Thunder
On a recent episode of 5 Good Minutes With Windy, Windhorst discussed the recent rumblings of disconnect between James and the Lakers, and, instead of dispelling such talk and shutting down any worrisome departure buzz, he admitted that "LeBron's time with the Lakers is beginning to come to an end."
"They are beginning to move apart. You can actually argue that started when they traded for Luka. I know everybody thought LeBron was in on that. I know I said at the time that -- LeBron was not in on it. I don't know what else to tell you. He was not in on it. He wasn't against it. I think he was shocked they traded Anthony Davis. But LeBron was not a part of that decision process. That was a move away from LeBron as the center of the team," Windhorst said.
Perhaps a bit beneath the surface, one could make the case that this commentary should be seen as rather troubling for the Thunder. At the same time, Mavs fans could start to get a bit more excited about the possibility of the King's arrival.
If Dallas already was viewed as a team providing Oklahoma City with a serious challenge on the floor due to their oversized frontcourt (Davis, Flagg, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, etc.), the concept of thrusting the all-time, Swiss Army Knife talents of the 6-foot-9 LeBron into the mix should undoubtedly give the club a freight.
Despite going onto his age 41 season, the future Hall of Famer is still producing at elite levels, as he's coming off a 2024-25 campaign where he dropped electrifying per-game averages of 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.0 steals on 51.3 percent shooting from the floor and 37.6 percent shooting from deep while guiding Los Angeles to the third seed out in the West standings.
At the moment the idea of James joining the Mavericks is exactly that -- an idea.
However, oftentimes in this league, where there's smoke, there's fire. With the deep relationships he has with players like Irving and Davis (built-in experience of winning a championship with both), on top of Windhorst's bombshell assessment, there actually may already be embers smoldering out in the Lone Star State.