2024–25 Dallas Mavericks season

The 2024–25 Dallas Mavericks season was the 45th season for the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Mavericks would look to return to the NBA Finals following their 4–1 defeat to the championship winning Boston Celtics. On July 6, 2024, the Mavericks would complete a six-team sign-and-trade that saw them acquire four-time champion shooting guard Klay Thompson from the Golden State Warriors, breaking apart the Splash Brothers duo there in the process. Before this season began, the Mavericks would also leave Bally Sports Southwest (later rebranded to FanDuel Sports Network Southwest as of October 21, 2024) in order to air games with TEGNA Inc. owned stations within the state of Texas.

On February 2, 2025, the Mavericks sent franchise superstar Luka Dončić alongside Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers in a controversial blockbuster trade, in return for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 1st round pick. General manager Nico Harrison stated that the trade with Dončić related to them wanting to improve the team's defense, though it was leaked out that long-term payment and weight concerns that he had with the team at the time, with Dončić being considered eligible for the super-max contract at the time and it being reported that he was reaching 270 pounds before the trade occurred. Regardless of the reasoning, Mavericks fans immediately disapproved of the trade and had long-term demands of the team firing Harrison as general manager for the sudden surprising move. The move was considered by many outlets to be the most shocking move of all time in sports history, along with tags of being one of the worst moves. Davis later suffered an adductor injury in his debut for the Mavericks on February 8, causing him to miss extended time. Kyrie Irving also suffered a season-ending torn ACL on March 3, while several other Mavericks players were sidelined with injuries. By March 15, only eight players were considered healthy enough to play, which was the bare minimum amount of players an NBA team is required to have active for games. Just 2 days after the Doncic trade, the Mavs sent Quentin Grimes to the Philadelphia 76ers for Caleb Martin. These events led to numerous amounts of backlash from the fanbase, largely toward Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont. The hate was so intense fans began chanting hateful comments towards the staff and the team had to hire extra security to escort fans out of the home arena, with Harrison’s personal information also getting leaked online. Many fans of the NBA itself called the 2024–25 Mavericks season one of the saddest seasons across professional sports history, leading to some thinking the team was cursed.

On April 9, the Mavericks became the last Western Conference team to clinch a play-in spot following the Oklahoma City Thunder defeating the Phoenix Suns. They would win their first game on April 16 before falling to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second play-in game on April 18, ending their season and missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2022–23 season. They were also the first team since the 2019–20 Golden State Warriors to miss the playoffs after reaching the finals the previous season.

Despite only having a 1.8% chance to receive the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, they won the NBA draft lottery, becoming the second straight team to qualify for postseason and win the lottery without a trade after the 2023–24 Atlanta Hawks. Part of their improbably lucky break came from them winning a coin flip over the Chicago Bulls that resulted in them staying at what would have initially been the #11 pick in the draft before the Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery in spite of their small odds and landing a new key rookie onto their team after previously trading away Luka Dončić to the Lakers months earlier.