Dallas Mavericks preview: Hoping bad summer doesn't hurt season
Paste BN projection: 42-40
Dallas lost out on the attempt to get DeAndre Jordan in free agency, which appeared to mess up their offseason plans. Now there is concern this team might not able to get into the playoffs.
What’s different this season? For five days, it looked like Jordan, a 7-0 free agent center, was going to be the big-name signing that had proved so elusive for Dallas in previous years. But he and eventually forward Richard Jefferson would back out of their agreements with the Mavericks. Dallas did add shooting guard Wesley Matthews, point guard Deron Williams and center Zaza Pachulia, though. It also drafted wing Justin Anderson in the first round.
How good can they be? Matthews is coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon, Williams had arguably the worst season of his career and Pachulia is not the player Tyson Chandler was. Chandler left in free agency when the Mavericks thought they had Jordan. Dirk Nowitzki can still score at 37 however, and J.J. Barea provides energy. Combined with Chandler Parsons, who averaged 15.7 points a game, and Dallas should still be able to score. It averaged 107.2 points per 100 possessions last season, fifth in the NBA.
How far they have to go: The Mavericks ranked seventh with a 103.7 defensive rating. To aid the defense, Matthews will have to be healthy and Pachulia will have to be more of a rim protector than the 0.3 blocked shots per game he posted last season. And it would help immensely if Williams could return to the player he was for the first eight years of his career.
Post-Nowitzki identity? With Nowitzki closer to 40 than 30, this team needs a future star. Matthews has shot 39.3% on three-pointers in his career and provides very good defense. His presence actually might hurt the Mavericks from getting a top pick in the 2016 draft to acquire the team’s next star.
Is Justin Anderson ready? Anderson will provide a three and defensive presence off the bench and should get plenty of minutes to be groomed to be a future starter. His body is NBA-ready (6-6, 230 pounds).