The Dallas Mavericks have found the problem: their training staff.

After a tough season, after a series of injured people scattered any hope of reorganization after changing the franchise’s Luka Dončić trade, the Mavericks are moving forward from several senior members of their health and performance team. This is their third straight offseason, and they have made major changes to the group.

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In this case, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison fired track and field athletics Dionne Calhoun, who had been with the team for 21 years, and athletic performance director Keith Belton, who reportedly engaged in a major infight last month over his health decisions.

From the outside, injury is a seasonal issue for the Mavericks. Only three players have played 57 games for the team this season. Kyrie Irving's season ended with an ACL tear. After joining the team, Anthony Davis was immediately under pressure from the adductor. PJ Washington deals with knee and ankle injuries, Dereck Lively II fell due to an ankle fracture, and Daniel Gafford missed a large portion of the time due to a knee injury.

The team is very mean and some people are starting to speculate that they will have to start confiscating the game due to the lack of healthy players on the roster.

Somehow, this is just the beginning of a dysfunction.

Mavericks trainers reportedly were a mess under Nico Harrison

In an article published after the Dallas season, ESPN reported that Harrison's handling of training staff was a major split point with the teams of Dončić and Legend Dirk Nowitzki. Both players reportedly approached Casey Smith, a former Mavericks director of health and performance, an award-winning coach who Harrison fired his severely ill mother in 2023.

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According to ESPN, Smith is “too negative”. When asked about these claims, Harrison called the situation in Smith "a little joking" and declined further comments.

Team sports performance director Jeremy Holsopple and manual therapist Casey Spangler are also close to Dončić, who were also fired in June last year.

Harrison replaced Smith with Belton and Player Health and Performance Director Johann Bilsborough. Belton is a former Chicago Bears guard who has no NBA experience before joining the Mavericks. He served as Director of Football Performance at UCLA for the past four years and technically does not have the certificates needed to be an NBA strength coach, although he has temporarily obtained NBA approval while seeking those certificates.

On the other hand, Australian sports scientist Bilsborough, who also has a PhD in football, is also a Mavericks in the football world, in this case, with the New England Patriots for five seasons. Unlike Belton, he does have NBA experience, serving as the Boston Celtics’ athletic science director from 2017 to 2020, but reportedly left after a clash with Boston’s chief athletic coach at the time.

The two employees reportedly clashed regularly, and there was a fierce confrontation in dealing with Lively's ankle injury. Belton reportedly had intense exercise during his recovery and thought he could return to action within a few days. Bilsborough is uncertain and lively for a CT scan, which reveals a stress fracture in his ankle. The injury lasted for two and a half months.

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There was reported disagreement with Dončić’s camp on the injury schedule, as Dončić did not work with Belton at all and believed he suffered a calf strain as he rushed back from a bruise on his heel, while Harrison accused of poor conditions.

Bilsborough reportedly performed an MRI on the Calf strain, thinking Dončić could return in two or three weeks, while the player's team insisted it would take six weeks. Dončić's trade with the Lakers made it controversial. Belton is now gone, too, while Billsboro and Harrison are still there.

However, not everything can be attributed to the training staff. Irving's ACL tear was described as a freak accident, but it was also true after the Dončić trade after the 33-year-old guard was carrying the NBA's biggest minute workload.

You can put that with Harrison.