DALLAS – Just because they spent the past week trading four of their five opening-day starters doesn’t mean the Dallas Mavericks are giving up on this season.

On the contrary.

The Mavs (25-28) are just two games in the loss column behind the Los Angeles Clippers (30-26) for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. And with 29 games remaining in the regular season – including a pivotal Feb. 25 road game against the Clippers – the Mavs know they are very much in the thick of the playoff race.

“We are all-in on making the playoffs,” Donnie Nelson, the Mavs’ president of basketball operations, said during a Thursday afternoon press conference at American Airlines Center. “It’s a really exciting time.

“We’ve got a really good young core with significant upside and I’m really optimistic about the future of this team.”

The Mavs made two major trades over the past week, including one with the New York Knicks that enabled them to acquire All-Star power forward Kristaps Porzingis. However, Porzingis hasn’t played since tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament on Feb. 6, 2018.

Porzingis underwent surgery last Feb. 13 and the Mavs plan to sit him for the balance of this season with hopes of having him fully healthy in time for the opening of training camp next fall. But Porzingis is a huge Dirk Nowitzki fan and has often been compared to the Mavs’ legendary 21-year veteran.

So, if the Mavs are close to making the playoffs this season headed into the final few games, is there any chance they’ll play Porzingis so he can help give them a nudge to the playoffs while also realizing a dream of playing with Nowitzki?

“Everyone knows that the health of our players is the No. 1 thing,” Nelson said. “And we are one of the most conservative teams — probably in the world — and his long-term health is the most important thing.

“We will not jeopardize that for anything.”

Nelson said the Mavs will keep an eye on players from other teams who are waived or are bought out of their contracts to see if any of them can help them make a strong push for the playoffs.

“Again, our focus is, we want to give our young core an opportunity to experience that,” Nelson said. “Again, with Dirk, you just don’t know when he’s going to make that decision (concerning retirement or returning to play next season).

“And to end it with a playoff run would be a storybook ending, if in fact this is where it ends.”