Max Christie arrived in Dallas as the other piece of the Luka trade. After a career year alongside Cooper Flagg, he made clear he is just getting started.
Nobody talked about Max Christie when the Luka Doncic trade happened. Anthony Davis was the story; Christie was just there for the ride. But when the 2025-26 season ended, Christie had played more games than anyone on the Mavericks roster, started 68 of them, and put up the best numbers of his four-year career. Dallas did not just get a throw-in. They may have gotten one of the better young shooting guards in the Western Conference.
The question heading into next season is what role Christie occupies on a team that is about to look very different. If Dallas hits in the lottery on May 10 and adds another high-end piece alongside Cooper Flagg, Christie's value as a starting shooting guard becomes even more significant. He shot 40.4% from three on a team that desperately needed spacing around Flagg all season.
He made eight 3-pointers in a single game against the Knicks in January, tied for the most by any Maverick in any game this year. He does not need the ball to be effective, which is exactly the kind of player a team built around a ball-dominant forward needs beside him every night.
Christie is also only getting better. His relationship with assistant coach Phil Handy, which stretches back to their time together in Los Angeles, gave him a foundation to build on from the moment he arrived in Dallas.
Handy pushed him, found ways to put him in positions to succeed and gave Christie the confidence to trust his own game through the stretches when it was not falling.
"I feel like I got better and better each time," Christie told Mavs.com. "He's just such a wealth of knowledge, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with him throughout the summer."
That mentality, combined with his shooting efficiency and defensive versatility at 6-foot-5, makes Christie a legitimate starting option for a team rebuilding toward contention.
Whether Dallas keeps him in the starting lineup or eventually transitions him into a high-usage sixth man role as the roster gets deeper, his value to the franchise is no longer a question.
"I don't want to stay in the same place," Christie said. "I just want to continue to keep making good jumps."
If he does, Dallas will have gotten far more out of that trade than anyone expected.