Will teams begin to emulate the Dallas Mavericks?
This year’s Dallas Mavericks have taken a major step forward. Their young star Luka Doncic already looks like a top 10 or even top 5 players in the NBA. From every account, the Mavs are preparing to make the quick jump to championship contender.
Before the league’s hiatus, the Mavs were 40-27, playoff-bound, and hadn’t even played their best basketball yet. One of the biggest proponents of the team’s success this season was the conscious effort to surround their young star, Doncic, with shooting on the perimeter.
Everywhere on the roster, from guards to big men, there are players on this Mavericks team that can flat out shoot it from beyond the arc. Delon Wright, Seth Curry, and Maxi Kleber are all examples of players that can space the floor from every position. The goal of this system was to then let Luka Doncic be the engine.
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Today’s NBA is all about the high-usage but an efficient superstar. Adding shooters all across the roster was the perfect plan, as it allowed Doncic to be the decision-maker, with driving lanes to score and shooters to then dish to.
The Dallas Mavericks’ efficient offense
The results have turned out perfectly. The Dallas Mavericks have one of the most efficient offenses in NBA history, leading the league in offensive rating. Along with that, the Mavs rank third in points per game this season at a whopping 116 points, while also being second in 3-point makes a game with an average of 15 deep shots a game.
Again the engine to it all is Luka Doncic. The Mavericks set up their offense with simple pick-and-roll action. The difference is that everyone outside of Doncic in the pick-and-roll is shooter ready to let it fly from three. In addition, the Mavericks sometimes attack with 5-out spacing where every offensive player on the floor spaces out on the 3-point line.
With how great the Mavericks offense has been this season, it’s safe to wonder if this is a strategy that will be replicated across the league. With a rise of high-usage perimeter players in the NBA both in forms of younger stars like Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal but also in upcoming drafts.
In this year’s draft, there are players like Killian Hayes and LaMelo Ball who look the part of high-usage playmaking guards. It’s still very early but that also looks to be the play style of 2021 prospects like Jalen Green and Cade Cunningham as well.
It might just make sense to grow teams up just like the Mavericks did this offseason around Doncic. Teams should look to acquire that true high-usage player and then surround him with shooters in all positions via draft, free agency, and trade.
Look at the best moves the Mavericks made to surround Doncic. First, they made a superstar trade for Kristaps Porzingis the young big man who has a serious range from distance. Then in the offseason, they brought in a legit shooter in Seth Curry. This Dallas Mavericks team may just become the blueprint for building a team moving forward.
Look at two other teams in the league, the Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards. Both of those teams have totally revamped their offense as well around their perimeter stars, putting the ball in their hands more. For those two teams, they improved enough to at least be in consideration for a playoff spot now.
If I’m a team like the Detroit Pistons, the Charlotte Hornets, or the Cleveland Cavaliers with no clear plan for the future, I’m looking at the Mavericks. An offense that is simple but centrally focused on one elite player with pick-and-roll and then five out spacing can be a path to success.
With finding just one young star it’s easy to then add shooters around them. Every offseason there’s always an array of 3-point shooters that teams are quick to go after. Look at this offseason, marksmen like Joe Harris and Davis Bertans are just a few of a whole slew of marksmen available right now.
Top it all off, this model only begins to scrape the surface. As teams continue to build, the system the Mavericks use can be added to when adding more talented players. Think about having two amazing ball-handlers like the Houston Rockets have been doing these past few years and there are even more combinations for this offensive attack.
Add in a valuable big-man star in the way Dallas has with Porzingis and then you could dump the ball into the post and work more of the inside while having shooters surrounding to dish out to.
The Dallas Mavericks have become one of the best watches in the NBA, and they surely are on the path to title contention. With drafting the right star and replicating elements of the Mavericks offensive system maybe other teams can turn-around to be on that trajectory too.