Dusty May's Mavs Seek 'Fact-Finding Mission' In China for Preseason Opener

Dallas spent the entire offseason being evaluated on paper. A new front office drew praise, a national championship coach got hired, a former No. 1 pick arrived for almost nothing and the roster filled up with young players nobody has seen together.

Friday morning in Macao, the Mavericks finally play somebody.

Dusty May is not pretending the result matters.

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"It will be a fact-finding mission," May said during Saturday's media scrum. "We want to win every drill. We want to win every shooting competition. But winning is not going to be the primary objective."

What he wants instead is information and he explained why Houston is a useful source of it.

"They're going to expose some things because of the way they play and how hard they play and their athleticism and their switchability, but also then their skill on offense will challenge some parts defensively," May said.

Houston is a difficult draw for a team still figuring itself out. The Rockets are long, physical and switch everything and Amen Thompson will make life miserable for whoever is handling the ball. Then Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun go to work on the other end.

Dallas has been together for about a week for training camp and May was specific about what he hopes comes out of it.

"We need to leave Macao with a much better understanding of what our holes are on offense and defense and what are some things that we can hang our hat on when the game slows down," May said.

Preseason basketball rarely resembles anything that happens in April, but the possessions where the pace drops and a team has to execute something specific are the ones that translate. May wants to know what Dallas can run when there is no easy answer available.

The list of unknowns is long because almost nothing about this group is established. Kyrie Irving has not played an NBA game since March 2025. Cooper Flagg is entering Year 2 with expectations that did not exist a year ago. Beyond them, you could list most of the roster and the point would hold. These players have barely shared a floor and the only thing anyone knows about how they fit together is what the front office hoped when it assembled them.

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May has also kept quiet about how he plans to use anyone. Nothing has been revealed about minutes limits, rotations or how long the starters will be on the floor in either game, which is typical for a first preseason trip but leaves fans guessing about how much they will actually see of Irving and Flagg.

Fans at home will have to work for the first look regardless. Friday's game tips at 7 a.m. Central and Sunday's rematch starts at 5 a.m. The Mavericks then return to Dallas to close the preseason against New Orleans on Oct. 14 and Atlanta on Oct. 16.