The Dallas Mavericks have started the season with a devastating start and are already turning the spotlight away from the current season. The current squad also raises enough questions – including Dirk Nowitzki.
No one expected it to be an easy season in Dallas.
Despite all the euphoria about Dennis Smith Jr. it was also clear that this is a rookie and would not make only the right decisions from the very beginning – rookie guards start for good reason only in the rarest cases with successful (or ambitious) teams. The injury to Seth Curry in the Preseason didn’t help anyone. The squad is ok, but I’m sure it’s not very busy.
It was probably clear to even the greatest optimists that Dallas would have had to do a lot of things right in order to play around the playoffs in the strong West. And yet, it was not necessarily to be expected that things would go so badly.
The Mavs and Atlanta, together with 2-12, have the worst record of the league. That they won’t have anything to do with the playoffs is already evident at this early stage of the season. Internally, the focus should already be on the future and the next draft (Hello, Luka Doncic!), even though no one outside will admit it openly.
“If you do that, it will be a very, very long season, which is no fun at all,” said Dirk Nowitzki on Monday,”Now of course you don’t want to put any words in the mouth of the living legend Nowitzki, but I don’t think he must have had too much fun during the first weeks of the season.
The 39-year-old once again emphasized that he is physically well, but he has more and more problems in a playful manner. This has been defensively the case for a long time and miracles were never to be expected from him here. But it is also offensive and sometimes a tragedy.
Nowitzki currently has the lowest score (10.1) and a casting rate (41.4 percent) since his rookie year. He also doesn’t go to the line anymore – Nowitzki gets only 1.2 free throws per game. In the last five games, he scored double-digit points only once.
Dallas has always had an above-average offense during the entire century, even last season, as long as Nowitzki was on the court – currently this is no longer the case. As the defence was doomed to failure from the beginning, Dallas is currently 12 points per 100 possessions better when Nowitzki sits on the bench.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Nowitzki is responsible for the current performance of his team – he didn’t put together the squad, of course he still has his qualities, especially as a leader. That in his twentieth birthday, however. Season almost 24 minutes per game and thus more than any other Big Man in Dallas on the court stands, speaks volumes about the location of the franchise. And about their alignment or lack of it.
The situation around Nerlens Noel was already precarious in the summer when he rejected a contract offer, fired his agent and replaced him with LeBron-Buddy Rich Paul and then signed for the Qualifying Offer. Precarious, but not irreparable. At the moment, the whole thing is taking on almost strange proportions.
Just a few months ago, Noel was considered the Big Man of the future in Dallas, currently collecting DNPs or taking two minutes in the garbage time as against OKC. Noel has to earn his minutes like everyone else,”Rick Carlisle explained – the coach remains old-school and then uses Dwight Powell or Salah Mejri, who have a manageable talent, but at least bring along the right attitude.
I wouldn’t say it’s offensive to me,”he said after the OKC game,” I just have to look after my body and stand by while I’m sitting there all the time. I have to be smart.”
The fact that it is likely to bubble internally also seems quite obvious. Now Noel would leave the Mavs in the summer even if the only competing offer came from the Guangdong Southern Tigers.
That doesn’t have to be so bad for Dallas. The Mavs are better placed than any other team to judge what Noel really does or is worth. It is quite possible that he overestimates himself excessively and that the Mavs are just right to keep him on a short leash. At the moment, Noel is actually playing anything but well. The suspicion arises that this is largely due to his dissatisfaction and that he could flourish elsewhere.
Regardless of this, however, Dallas has given up assets for Noel and hoped for something from him, actually he should be part of the core of the future. Now the question arises again as to what this core actually looks like.
Smith is one of them, of course. Harrison Barnes, too. Seth Curry, if he gets fit again, probably. What else like this? Yogi Ferrell, Dorian Finney-Smith, Gian Clavell or Maxi Kleber maybe?
Dallas has, as is well known, been failing for years to commit itself completely to a policy, and the situation is currently the same. At the same time, one would like to play and rebuild successfully, but such a thing only works in the rarest cases. The Mavs have several blocks in the squad which hardly fit together.
There are a few young guns, of which Smith and 25-year-old Barnes are the only high-calibre ones. There are also a few solid role-players in their prime like Powell – and then there are the old knights like Devin Harris, J. J. Barea and of course Nowitzki. Deserved players who have had their best times for a long time.
Wesley Matthews (31) isn’t really an oldie, but currently in terrible shape (11.1 points, 35.9 percent out of the field). Normally he would be a logical trade candidate, but given his form and the outstanding player option for the coming season ($18.6 million!), it will be hard to get rid of him.
This is no problem when refuelling, at the moment Matthews is even helpful. His deal becomes problematic in the summer, when Dallas wants to bid for the big Free Agents (again) as one of the few teams that really have Cap Space. However, one should not expect that these Free Agents will try to move to Dallas.
Dallas can be justifiably happy to have gotten Smith, that’s something you don’t only know since the “controversial” praise of LeBron James. But it will still take a lot of steps, many right decisions to get out of the thicket. And in the ideal case, you stay on a course and do it with conviction.
There will be many defeats and a high draft pick this year, either way. Only Nowitzki himself can judge how much fun it is to be a part of it. Fortunately, it’s not like he has anything else to prove.