The Dallas Mavericks have a lot to prove this season. The Mavericks, who got into hot water for tanking late last season, will be one of the first teams to get a chance to officially look at their offseason transactions. Dallas opened up preseason action against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
Mavericks Rumors & Notes: Asia and Europe Trip, Training Camp Battles, Jason Kidd &More
Dallas had several goals this summer, and the Mavericks accomplished most of them. The Mavericks wanted to get better while maintaining some youth on their roster. The Mavericks did improve as they re-signed Kyrie Irving and traded for Grant Williams.
The addition of Williams and Derrick Jones Jr., a free agent signing, will help their defense. Seth Curry, another free agent addition, helps replace the shooting that the Mavs lost in the trade for Irving and Williams trades.
The Mavericks made all their moves without sacrificing any of their youth as they wanted. The Mavs added a couple of youngsters in Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
The only goal that Dallas didn’t fully accomplish was improve their center corp. The Mavs essentially swapped JaVale McGee for Richaun Holmes. So, they probably need an upgrade unless Lively demonstrates he can be a major contributor this year.
Dallas has 15 players under contract, with 14 fully guaranteed. Markief Morris has a partial guarantee ($200,000). The Mavericks also have an open two-way spot.
Luka Donic, Kyrie Irving, and Williams have secured starting jobs for the Mavericks. Thus leaving the small forward and center starting positions up for grabs.
Abu Dhabi
The Mavericks has been in Abu Dhabi, as part of the NBA Global initiative, since Monday. The Mavs will be away from home for 12 days.
“Yeah, I think it’s important,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of the NBA’s Global Games initiative. “You can talk about the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks were last year. Minnesota and the Mavs are here this year. I think the sporting world, Formula 1, is here, so many sports are coming here. I think it’s a great thing. Hopefully, we can develop an NBA star from this region with the grassroots program.”
“It’s been great for team bonding,” Kidd said on Wednesday. “We had a nice team dinner last night in the desert. We’ll go to the mosque later this afternoon. Everybody’s hopefully adjusted to the time, and then on top of all those activities, yesterday’s practice was good to continue what we’ve been doing at home.”
2+ minutes of us being fascinated by camels 🐫 Enjoy.
#MFFL pic.twitter.com/T9n30FvemW
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) October 3, 2023
After Thursday’s game, the Mavs and the Wolves will play again on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Dallas will then head to Madrid, Spain, where they will face Real Madrid on October 10. When the Mavericks return home, they will have one more exhibition contest. That will be against the Detroit Pistons at the American Airlines Arena on October 20.
Mavs Falls To Wolves In Preseason Opener
Dallas dropped its preseason opener to Minnesota 111-99. The Mavericks, who never led, were down 18 at the end of the first quarter and trailed by as many as 29. The Mavs frontcourt was dominated as they were outrebounded by 14, and the Timberwolves were 31-for-60 (51.6%) on their two-point shots.
Doncic led the way for the Mavs with 25 points in 17 minutes. But Irving and Williams struggled mightily.
Dallas used 18 players in the game. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jones Jr. did not play.
Rebounding and Defense
Dallas’ main concentration since training camp opened has been rebounding and defense. Rebounding has been a problem for the Mavericks for the past several seasons.
“One thing we want to emphasize this year is rebounding,” Doncic said during the Mavericks media days before the opening of camp. “We got to get better on our rebounding.”
Dallas was the worst rebounding team in the league last year, grabbing just 47.1% of all available boards. Hitting the offensive glass was mainly an issue, as the Mavs ranked 30th in the league. Overall, the Mavs were outrebounded by opponents by nearly six a game.
“When you look at being able to rebound the ball, (it’s) something we’ve always struggled with,” Kidd said. “Hopefully, some of these adjustments defensively will put us in a better situation to rebound the ball.
“There will be a lot of things that we have changed to adapt to today’s game. We’ll see how it goes in preseason. As coaches, we have all these great ideas. Until we put them out and see that they don’t work, we have to make a change. But hopefully, these changes will put us in a better situation defensively.”
Rebounding and interior defense was a major issue for the Mavericks in their 2023 exhibition. The Mavericks grabbed just 64.9% of all available defensive boards and 44.4% of all available rabounds.
Overall, the Mavs were outrebounded by the Timberwolves 56-42. They also were outscored 60-36 in the paint and 21-6 in second-chance points.
Training Camp Battles
As stated, the Mavericks have an open competition for two starting spots, small forward and center. Prosper, Jaden Hardy, and Josh Green are expected to battle to be with the first unit at small forward following Kidd’s announcement on Saturday, that Hardaway Jr. will come off the bench.
“I’m excited again for Timmy, looking to talk to him about being Sixth Man of the Year,” Kidd said. “That would help our team, put us in a really good seat if he’s up for Sixth Man of the Year. And I think he’s capable of doing that.”
Hardaway Jr. is used to both roles. The 31-year-old has started 171 of 273 games with the Mavs, including 45 of 71 appearances last season.
Meanwhile, Lively, Dwight Powell and Holmes are competing for the starting center spot.
Lively and Prosper started in the preseason opener today. Neither played very well.
Lively appeared to be overmatched by Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. The 19-year-old fished the game with two points on 1 of 2 shooting, five rebounds, and a -12 plus/minus rating. Lively did record a block.
Prosper was 0-for-3 from the field and finished with one point. He only had one rebound and a -18 plus/minus rating in 18 minutes.
Powell, Green, and Hardy played pretty well off the bench. Powell had five points and two steals, though he didn’t collect a rebound in nearly 16 minutes of action. Green had six points on 3 of 6 shooting and three rebounds. Meanwhile, Hardy posted 13 points, three assists, a steal, and a +12 plus/minus rating.
Expect the competition for the starting positions to go down to the last day of training camp.
End of Second Rotation Battle
Here’s what is known. Doncic, Irving, Williams, Hardaway Jr., Green, Hardy, Powell, Lively, and Prosper project to be among the Mavs’ top nine players. Leaving Seth Curry, Dante Exum, Maxi Kleber, and probably Jones Jr. fighting for the final spot on the second unit.
Jason Kidd On Hot Seat
Is Kidd on the hot seat?
Kurt Helin of NBC Sports believes so.
“Things have to work in Dallas. The Mavericks have a generational talent in Luka Doncic. They have the beautiful game of Kyrie Irving next to him. The Mavericks made moves such as adding Grant Williams to improve the defense. Doing all this backed Dallas into a financial corner — if this doesn’t work and the Mavericks are not a serious threat in the West, it won’t be easy to retool and build another contender around Doncic.”
Kidd has a 90-74 record in his two seasons with the Mavericks. He led the Mavs to 52 victories and an appearance in the Western Conference finals in year one. The 52 victories were the franchise’s most since 2010-11.
I don’t necessarily agree with this hot seat assessment. Granted, the Mavericks struggled last year, but Kidd didn’t have much to work with besides Doncic. While the Mavs have improved, so have the top teams — Denver notwithstanding also has. The Mavericks should make a jump in the standings, but a conference contender? Now, if the Mavericks miss the playoffs and the Doncic-Irving pairing is a disaster. Then, yeah, his seat will be very much in jeopardy.
