NBA Analysts See Big Things Coming for New-Look Mavs: 'Best Team Luka Doncic's Had'
As the old saying goes, "winning cures everything," and the Dallas Mavericks are currently experiencing that firsthand while riding a season-high seven-game winning streak.
Before the trade deadline, many national media members didn't take Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving's Mavs seriously due to their lack of frontcourt depth. However, the additions of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford have many people now singing Dallas' praises.
On the latest episode of The Mismatch, NBA analysts Kevin O'Conner and Chris Vernon discussed the revamped Mavs and how much more versatile they are now after the trade deadline.
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"Now you look at this Mavericks roster," O'Conner said. "You look at past years with Dallas, the lack of depth they've had behind Luka, the lack of wings, the lack of versatility. Now they've got versatile forwards like P.J. Washington and Maxi Kleber, wings, Josh Green, Derrick Jones [Jr.], Tim Hardaway [Jr.], bigs, [Dereck] Lively, [Daniel] Gafford. Obviously his co-star Kyrie Irving. They just have so many different types of pieces right now, that you're seeing Jason Kidd use different types of lineups."
One thing O'Conner likes specifically is the fact that the Mavs can now play "small-ball" lineups without actually being too small. Dallas showed this in their 123-113 win over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night when head coach Jason Kidd closed withe Washington at the four and Maxi Kleber at the five after Phoenix went small.
"They're using Gafford or Lively almost all of the time on the floor, except – and they did this against the Suns – when they go with a small-ball lineup with P.J. Washington and Maxi Kleber in the frontcourt," O'Conner said.
"It feels like the Mavericks are starting to take shape as a total team. It's not just Luka. It's Kyrie with their two-man actions playing together. It's P.J. Washington with switchable defenses. It's Daniel Gafford or Lively with having a big rolling five. They can take on different shapes, and they seem dominant regardless of what they're doing."
Before the trade deadline, the best team Doncic had played on was the 2021-22 team that reached the Western Conference Finals, and that team didn't have near the frontcourt depth that this current team has.
"Top to bottom, this is the best team Luka's had," Vernon said. "To promote your idea even more that, 'hey we need to really pay to Dallas,' not just this is a cute little win streak they're on, but really pay attention: There's only four teams in the league that don't have a lineup that's played 100 minutes – Memphis, terrible season, Charlotte, terrible season, Miami, mediocre season, [around] .500 so far, and Dallas."
Vernon went on to suggest that if the Mavs have been as good as we've seen lately despite the lack of continuity with their lineups, the best could be yet to come in these final 26 games of the season.
At 33-23, the Mavs take their seven-game winning streak on the road for a four-game trip against Eastern Conference opponents. It begins with a match against former Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers on Sunday afternoon. We'll see if these Mavs, who have gotten a surprisingly large amount of national media hype over the last several days, can continue their positive momentum.
