Dallas Mavericks Season Preview

Dallas Mavericks

2014 Record: 49-33

2015 O/U 38.5

Who are their stars?

Dirk Nowitzki has been the face of the Mavericks since my 24 year old self can remember. In 2015, the 37 year old is still the star of the team, but at this point that may be their falling point. Dirk has taken his team the distance before, but a 33 year old in 2011 is not the same Dirk of today. Nowitzki has been effective, but it has been the limiting of his minutes that has helped, along with the defensive talent around him. Dirk isn’t going to lose his shot, but his ability to defend, and move up and down the court will be the greatest thing to watch this season.

Who are the glue guys?

Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews are the guys signed on to be the long term glue guys, and the good news is both have some star moment upside. However, the bad news is I don’t see them hitting that upside this season. Parsons who is coming off of shoulder surgery that ended his season, now has been deemed out for a few weeks with microscopic knee surgery. Parsons looked hurt late in 2014 as the Mavs season faded away so it will be a huge case to monitor when looking at how the Mavericks rotations go. Wesley Matthews, on the other hand was signed this offseason in what will be about seven months after having an Achilles tear. The Achilles is not something that is easy to recover from, and the Mavericks have acknowledged they know the risk of pushing someone back from that. In all, you have to have a huge concern when the “big 3” in big D is Dirk on a minutes limit, and Parsons being eased in and a potential of little to no Matthews throughout the year. Deron Williams was also signed this off-season, but who knows if he even wants to bring anything. For the first time in a few years he will actually have to play to make more money, so if he can bring some momentum in a new scene it would be a huge boost to what Dallas can do.

Who are the rotation players?

The biggest concern in Dallas, is that if those four aren’t giving you all star quality performances this core is doomed. Devin Harris and JJ Barea are fine bench guards. When Barea enters the lineup for Matthews, the unproven John Jenkins is then given minutes. Between Harris, Williams, and Raymond Felton they at least have depth at the position, although little upside on all fronts. If the Parsons injury is real I don’t see why rookie Justin Anderson wouldn’t see a lot of time in his spot. Anderson is a good defensive presence, and with little going on in the position otherwise, it would be great to have him growing and playing with a guy like Dirk. The problem is who plays down in the front court with Dirk. Plan A was Dendre Jordan and we all know that. Moving to Zaza Pachulia, and some Sam Dalembert is just a slap in the face to the franchise. Who knows if they can get quality play out of any of them, and compared to Tyson Chandler of the past, it makes things so much tougher of Dirk to make impacts on defense, and offense. Behind him is Dwight Powell and Charlie Villanueva and I would suspect Powell to get the most time when Dirk sits. Either way it leaves them in a lot of mismatches and it makes things really tough on the injured and old of the star talent they would like to obtain.

Where do they rank? Over Under? How far can they go?

Vegas sees them to have an 11 win regression and I tend to agree, and think it may have the chance to be worse. If I look around and I am fighting for an 8 seed, and Matthews hasn’t played, Parsons is banged up, and Dirk looks tired, why not shut this thing down, play guys like Dwight Powell, and Justin Anderson to see if they can stick, and you add a top 5 pick, and nice free agency, and an extremely healthy Parsons and Matthews and now you go for it in what could be Dirks last year. Building for next year is my move if I am Mark Cuban, and therefore top 5 pick is fine with me, as well as 15th in the West. If they play out the motions they can fight for the 8 all year and fall short, but I would go for broke and play my youth.

Under 38.5 wins, 15th in the Western Conference, 27th in the NBA