Last week, Stephen A. Smith [confidently declared that the biggest threat](https://thunderousintentions.com/okc-thunder-stephen-a-smith-tabs-number-one-threat-after-nba-draft) to the OKC Thunder and their pursuit of a repeat during the 2025-26 season is the Dallas Mavericks.
Considering their successes against Oklahoma City over the past few years, coupled with the fact that they just added Duke phenom Cooper Flagg with the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the polarizing sports personality considers the Mavs a "formidable" foe of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company.
Of course, what Smith failed to emphasize is that though Dallas may have had OKC's number over the last several seasons, they had primarily been rolling out a much different collection of talent than the one they'll be sporting this coming campaign.
No longer is this team the reigning Western Conference Champion, spearheaded by arguably the best player in the game, Luka Doncic.
Instead, they'll be entering next season fresh off a playoff-less and Donic-less (traded to Los Angeles in February) finish, with their franchise point guard, Kyrie Irving, presumably out for the entire season with a torn ACL, and the unreliable Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson welcoming Flagg to the Lone Star State.
And, as if things weren't already highly unstable for the Mavericks, based on recent reports, they are likely to add hot-and-cold Brooklyn Nets veteran D'Angelo Russell to lead their offense in Irving's absence.
'Number one' Thunder threat heavy favorites to sign D'Angelo Russell
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According to [NBA insider Marc Stein](https://marcstein.substack.com/p/sunday-best-lots-more-of-the-latest?utm_campaign=email-post&r=qtt3u&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email), Dallas is viewed around the league as the "overwhelming favorites" to sign the 29-year-old free agent as their next starting point guard.
Now, in his defense, Russell is by no means a talentless afterthought player in the association.
In fact, since entering the NBA as the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, the former Ohio State standout has established himself as an All-Star while boasting impressive career averages of 17.3 points, 5.7 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.1 steals on 36.5 percent shooting from deep.
The issue with Russell, however, is that he's never really proven himself as a player who can lead a team to high-end success as their lead floor general.
Throughout his 10-year tenure in the league, only once has the point guard guided a club to the playoffs as "the guy" in the backcourt (2018-19 with the Nets), and has only been a part of four postseason excursions in total.
With all this in mind, while the Mavericks will certainly be an interesting team to watch with or without this particular rumor becoming a reality, to think the addition of D'Angelo Russell serving as their replacement to the nine-time All-Star Irving will bring them any closer to usurping the Thunder in the 2026 title chase is quite comical.
Without question, they're way more than just one solid role player away from doing so.