The Dallas Mavericks? Gone till November.

This might be too easy, but it’s also too accurate.

This, from the Dallas Morning News’ Eddie Sefko, is the Dallas Mavericks’ season:

And yet the team denied Rajon Rondo the ability to go out and buy a VW Golf with nearly 33,000 miles on it. And the internet, once full of ardent Rajon Rondo-backers, applauded with gusto.

[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

The Mavs have been doing nothing but taking chances since the 2011 offseason, which began some five and a half months following the team’s 2011 championship. They got to that championship by taking calculated risks, trusting coach Rick Carlisle to meld a winner, while believing in Dirk Nowitzki’s brilliance when the outlook appeared dour. We’re now four seasons past that championship, and after another first round ouster, this is the bleakest things have looked since Mark Cuban took over the team some 15 years ago.

It didn’t even look as bleak in the summer of 2004, when Cuban declined to go (what we all thought was) over the top to re-sign the beloved Steve Nash, following on the heels of a disastrous experiment that involved suiting up Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison alongside Nash and Nowitzki in what was perhaps the worst defensive “good” team in modern NBA history. Nash went on to win two MVPs, but the Mavs went on to build a better team that better suited Nowitzki’s style, outpacing Nash’s new Suns along the way.

Dallas continually rolled over cap room and flexibility, aware that the 2011 title club’s roster was fading and mindful of the fact that they needed to pair the declining (sorry, but it happens) Dirk with another star.

Each free agent situation and lost trade opportunity is unique, but in the end the Mavericks were left with the opportunity to sign Monta Ellis, the opportunity to sign Chandler Parsons, the chance to trade for Tyson Chandler (after declining to re-sign him in 2011, at the time rightfully fearful of his injury woes and age), and eventually the chance to trade Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson and a first-round pick for Rajon Rondo.

Under Carlisle, and with Nowitzki, the hope was that it could work. The 2011 Mavericks were picked by many to lose in the first round of the loaded Western Conference, the West was going to be just as loaded this year, and Carlisle and Nowitzki were already propping up an offense that was far and away the best in the NBA for the first nearly half of the season. Adding Rondo’s championship mettle, savvy and defense was thought to be a calculated risk. Even if he was just replacement value over Jameer Nelson, you still take that chance, right?

Right. Always and forever, right. Even though we all – Mavs included – knew that Rondo could have troubles working in an offensive system that doesn’t take kindly to ball-dominant point guards. Even though you respect Crowder, even though you got a lot out of Wright, and even though you value first-round picks, you make that move. This is the Western Conference.

The move failed. Rondo failed to capitulate, and even at his best he looked middling and tentative. His game had changed not only because of that 2013 ACL tear, but because he remains so absolutely fearful of being sent to the free throw line. Teams played off of him, knowing that he can’t shoot and mindful of his ability to whip assists through suddenly-clouded passing lanes. A lot had changed in the NBA since 2013, but that doesn’t mean the Mavericks (and Rajon Rondo was a Dallas Maverick) couldn’t make it work.

To say that it was never going to work is to make excuses for Rondo. Everyone was aware of the potential for disaster heading into the deal, but odd pairings can still fail despite the best efforts of all involved. Rondo gave no such effort, and the Mavs shouldn’t be criticized for happily making the move that brought it all crashing down. This is the West, and given healthy Thunder or healthier Pelicans, there’s even no guarantee that the NBA’s best offense even makes the playoffs.

It’s easy to tsk-tsk, when the Mavericks’ players do symbolic and also seemingly petty things like declining to vote a playoff share, and even though you understood that Rajon Rondo might not be Rick Carlisle’s sort of point guard. Carlisle isn’t intractable, though, and Rondo was. That’s on Rajon, and whatever chump decides to sign him this summer (oh, he’ll be great in November and December. You just watch).

This summer, frankly, is looking rather miserable for the Mavericks. It’s very much true that they can lop enough cash off of their books in order to sign what apparently is a disgruntled LaMarcus Aldridge or DeAndre Jordan, but what sense does this make for either side? Aldridge would be a disaster defensively alongside Nowitzki, and Jordan is the complete opposite of Tyson Chandler as a defender – this isn’t to say DeAndre is a minus defender, he just would seem as bad a fit as Aldridge for completely different reasons that all end up in the same place.

Both free agents would have to take less money, and leave teams that are still playing playoff basketball as of Wednesday night. This would also involve declining to re-sign Tyson Chandler, who will be 33 this October. That wouldn’t be the most illogical move under many circumstances, but as it was in 2011 (effectively replacing him with a holdover in Brendan Haywood and cap space for the next summer), the Mavs better get it right. When it came to replacing Chandler as a second star in 2011 and 2012, the Mavericks were left holding the figurative bag.

The team does have significant contributors that will be flagged down on the free agent market. Fair-weather NBA fans got to see what League Pass hounds have been enjoying in short spurts for years: Al-Farouq Aminu’s long-armed, active game causing havoc on both ends. He will most assuredly opt out of his $1.1 million player option. Jose Barea feels like a Maverick staple, but there is always a market for sound reserve point men. Contending teams will knock on Richard Jefferson’s door.

Guard Monta Ellis could become a free agent if he so desires, opting out of a $9.8 player option and possibly checking into to all those teams that missed out on Aldridge, Jordan, or Kevin Love and want a hasty consolation prize. Though Ellis has flourished at times under Carlisle, you could say that the Mavs made the same consolation move in signing him in 2013, and they may choose to let him go mindful of his style of game and the fact that he will enter 2015-16 at 30 years of age.

Seemingly, that would be the smart re-do. Don’t commit big years and money to scorers like Ellis or Aldridge who are about to enter their 30s, don’t hamstring the same future you’ve been protecting intelligently for years. Use your brain.

The Mavs are probably going to use their heart, though, as well they should.

Dirk Nowitzki has one guaranteed year left at $8.3 million on a contract he signed in order to help the Mavs add free agents. No, Dirk isn’t worth the $22 million he made last season, but even in his declining state he’s certainly worth twice as much as he made this year. Cuban and the Mavericks will try like mad to once again cobble together enough pieces to make the “Carlisle creative; Nowitzki good” combination work in the spring. It will be an incredibly tough go if Chandler Parsons needs career-altering microfracture surgery on his right knee.

If it means struggling in 2016-17 (when Dirk could play for his $8.69 million player option) or a year beyond, then you deal with it. The cap will rise significantly starting in 2016, basketball money is not a problem for Mark Cuban, and you can always trade contracts that might look like millstones this July but change considerably once the cap level sets off into the stratosphere.

As it has been for years, the Mavericks are going to spend to make things right for Dirk.

As it has also been for the years since that championship run, will anyone take their money? And are those new guys, all over again, going to work?

- - - - - - -

Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops