After Dirk’s final home game in April of 2019, Rick Carlisle said something at the time that made my ears perk. He was talking about what happens when a legendary player exits a franchise for good.
“It will never be the same, it just won’t,” Carlisle said. “I know that from experience. When Reggie Miller left Indiana, we had two down years immediately afterward and we had some talented guys. When you remove a guy like this and it’s going to change the landscape.”
While the Mavericks didn’t have two down years in the traditional sense — Dallas had back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since 2015 and 2016 — the true meaning of Carlisle’s statement has come to pass this week.