In his exit interview recently, Spencer Dinwiddie made a point out of mentioning Dwight Powell as a guy who kept the team engaged and motivated during adversity.
Despite barely being in the rotation this year, Powell still made a difference for his teammates, Dinwiddie says:
“From a culture standpoint, Dwight Powell is a great voice in the locker room. His energy is unmatched.”
Dinwiddie made sure to also give credit to the vet leaders of the team, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis (Davis, who joined the team after the Luka Doncic trade in the beginning of February 2025). He emphasized the trust the team has in the duo moving forward:
“From a true leadership perspective, I think Kyrie and AD (Anthony Davis) are obviously phenomenal leaders and will guide this team where it needs to go.”
And Brandon Williams, the two-way player who the Dallas Mavericks converted into a roster spot at the end of the season, seems to agree. In his exit interview, he spoke about how Irving was a large part of why Williams had a breakout year in Dallas:
“Leaned on Kyrie a lot. He’s a big brother, a mentor for me. Someone I try to model my game after. For him to be in my back pocket, one phone call away, that was almost like having a cheat sheet,” he said.
Williams stepped up as a starter and much needed point guard during the period when the Mavs roster was in dire need of bodies due to injuries. Not only was Williams a body to put on the court, he had multiple big games with great guard play and table setting, as well as a number of double digit scoring games.
He mentioned that he models his game after Irving, which is easy to see when you look closely at his highlights, getting inspiration from Irving’s shiftiness and finishing abilities as an undersized guard.
Back at Mavs media day in the beginning of the season, Dwight Powell reflected on his own journey, and said something that may shed a little light on how he may have used his voice in that locker room during some of the hardest times:
“The power of belief and thought know no bounds,” Powell said when describing his own path to the NBA.
His future with Dallas is uncertain, however, as his $4 million contract is expiring with a player option for next season.
Powell is by far the longest-tenured player on the team at this point. Interestingly, the second-longest is now guard Jaden Hardy, who was selected as recently as the 2022 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks, illustrating just how big of a change the roster has been through.
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