Rick Carlisle revisits Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson in Dallas, the 2022 run they made together, and what he thinks could have happened.
DALLAS - Former Dallas Mavs coach Rick Carlisle was asked about Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson during an appearance on The Draymond Green Show. Both were rookies on his 2018-19 Dallas Mavericks team.
Dallas took Brunson 33rd overall in the second round of the 2018 draft. Atlanta selected Dončić third and traded him to the Mavericks that night for Trae Young and a 2019 first-round pick. Dončić had just finished a EuroLeague season with Real Madrid.
"We didn't allow him to play Summer League because he played EuroLeague finals and another finals," Carlisle said. "His last game played was, like, the day before the draft or something."
Brunson did play that summer in Las Vegas.
"If you ask Jalen about it, he'll tell you it was an inauspicious Summer League," Carlisle said. "He didn't play particularly well."
Carlisle said the staff met with Brunson afterward. Brunson was not driving the ball and his 3-point attempts were long, and the coaches told him he needed to do both things well.
"He came back in the fall, and he was driving it, and he was making threes," Carlisle said.
Dončić arrived that fall for pickup games against a Dallas veteran group that included DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews, and Harrison Barnes.
"Luka's playing with these guys, and he is playing like Magic Johnson," Carlisle said. "He is rebounding, and he is throwing dimes, like, all over the place. He wasn't even really even looking to score."
Carlisle said he expected Dončić to play small forward at nearly 6-foot-8. Dončić kept telling him otherwise. Eight or 10 games into the season the staff moved him on the ball and shifted Dennis Smith Jr. off it. Dončić won Rookie of the Year.
Carlisle was asked what he meant by calling Brunson resourceful.
"He just, he adjusts. He adjusts to the situation," Carlisle said. "Jay was talking about his, you know, he was a stubborn competitor, and he just had this belief system in himself."
Carlisle said he made multiple trips to Villanova to work Brunson out and asked people around the program who the best player in school history was.
"Almost everybody said him," Carlisle said.
The two played four seasons together in Dallas. The last of them ended in the Western Conference finals.
Dončić missed the first three games of the 2022 first round against Utah with a calf strain. Brunson scored a career postseason-high 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting in a 110-104 Game 2 win, with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and no turnovers. He scored 31 in Game 3. Dallas led 2-1 when Dončić returned for Game 4 with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists. Brunson added 24 in the 98-96 close-out.
Phoenix came next as the top seed. Dončić had 33 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists in a Game 6 win to force a seventh game, with 18 from Brunson. In Game 7 in Phoenix, Dončić scored 35 and Brunson scored 24 in a 123-90 win. It was Dallas' first conference finals since 2011. Golden State won that series 4-1.
Brunson signed with New York that July.
"Those two guys, if they had stayed together, wow, you know?" Carlisle said. "What the possibilities of things that could've happened."
Dallas traded for Kyrie Irving the following February, sending Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, and second-round picks in 2027 and 2029 to Brooklyn for Irving and Markieff Morris. Dončić and Irving reached the NBA Finals in 2024 and lost to Boston in five games. Dallas traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025.
Brunson averaged 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists last season and shot 46.7% from the field. New York went 53-29, swept Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals, and beat San Antonio 4-1 in the NBA Finals. Brunson won Finals MVP, averaging 32.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists across the five games. He scored 45 on 14-of-27 shooting in the 94-90 close-out in San Antonio. It was the franchise's first title since 1973.
"Now there's talk about him being the greatest Knick ever," Carlisle said.
Dončić averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists across 64 games for the Lakers and made his sixth All-Star team. Oklahoma City swept Los Angeles in the second round.
"He's the most unique player I've ever worked with," Carlisle said. "He's a killer competitor too. I defy you to figure out a way to beat him, 'cause he is smart as hell, and he knows every trick in the book, and he knows how to win."
Carlisle closed with a warning about betting against Dončić in the gym.
"If you wanna lose $1,000, go in the gym and bet on him making or missing half-court shots," Carlisle said.
Dallas finished 26-56 last season. Cooper Flagg won Rookie of the Year. Masai Ujiri was hired as team president on May 4, and the Mavericks and Jason Kidd parted ways 15 days later. Dusty May was hired as head coach on June 23. Training camp opens in late September.
