The 2024-25 NBA season is here! We break down the biggest questions, best and worst case scenarios and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!
DALLAS MAVERICKS
2023-24 end
Offseason moves
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Additions: Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Quentin Grimes, Spencer Dinwiddie
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Subtractions: Derrick Jones Jr., Josh Green, Tim Hardaway Jr.
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Complete roster
The Big Question: Can they find the right balance?
For most of last season, the Mavericks looked like a team pulling with equal intensity in opposite directions. A top-10 offense trying to cover for a bottom-10 defense; An MVP-caliber superstar in Luka Dončić and a great-when-healthy No. 2 in Kyrie Irving trying to carry a roster otherwise light on offensive creation; capable of toppling titans with impressive shot-making, still roaring just to stay above .500.
You never knew which Mavs you were going to see night after night — a “Schrödinger challenger” level of uncertainty compounded by persistent injuries. Half a dozen rotation members missed significant time, prompting coach Jason Kidd to cycle through 35 starting rowstied for fifth-most in the league. Then, in early March, Kidd shuffled again, flanking Dončić and Irving with go-go-Gadget-armed defenseman Jones and trade deadline arrivals Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington.
Jackpot:
The Mavs won 16 of their final 20 regular-season games — including two losses they punted on. to rest beginners – with the NBA’s second best defense in that span. They tore through the Western playoff bracket, eliminating the Clippers, Thunder and Timberwolves allowing just 111.1 points per 100 possessions – a brand that would have finished just outside the top three during the regular season. They found a formula: Luka + Kyrie + massive, athletic defense = winning at a .757 clip, a 62-win rate, during the stretch run.
The math stopped adding up in the NBA Finals. The Celtics helped offensively away from Dallas’ complementary players, daring them to make Boston pay for loading to stop Dončić and Irving. They couldn’t: A Dallas team that finished the regular season top three in 3-pointers tests and does got together bottom-of-the-connection long distance numbers against Joe Mazzulla’s defense, which kept the Mavericks to a bleak 106.7 points-per-100 in a Mr. Sweepingwith Washington, Jones, Green and Maxi Kleber combining to shoot 43-for-106 (40.6%) from the field and 16-for-51 (31.3%) from 3-point land.
So: Enter Thompson, who made the sixth-most 3-pointers in NBA historymade more triples than anyone other than Stephen Curry over the last two seasonsfinished first or second in the league in grab and shoot 3s eight times in the last 11 seasons, and that gives Dallas the kind of five-alarm flamethrower that opponents can’t help
General manager Nico Harrison (who has almost completely transformed this list in the span of 18 months) bet that by trading Jones, Green and Hardaway for Thompson, Marshall (one of my favorite signings of the summer), Grimes (a year removed from shooting 39% from 3 for a playoff team in New York). ) and Dinwiddie (who shot 40% from 3 across parts of two seasons in his previous stint in Dallas), he elevated the team’s shooting and offensive fluidity to a degree that paves the way for top five offense capable of standing up against even the NBA’s meanest defenses. He’s also betting that, despite the clear point-of-attack drop from DJJ to Klay in the starting lineup, the Mavs will still be able to field a top-10ish defense — a unit good enough at getting stops to survive the gauntlet of four. series of finals.
That will demand much from Washingtonnow probably responsible for guarding the opponent’s best perimeter scorers; from rising sophomore Dereck Lively II, a revelation as a rookie who will have to take another step as a full-time catcher; of Kidd, again tasked with finding the right lineups; and, finally, by Dončić, now keenly aware of how uncomfortable it can feel under a championship-round microscope.
It is a big bet If it pays off, though, the reward could be a big-ass gold trophy.
Best case scenario
Klay is proving to be exactly the offensive booster Dallas bargained for, which — combined with mostly healthy seasons for Luka and Kyrie — is producing the NBA’s best regular-season offense. Lively jumps into the All-Defensive discussion, which — combined with Kidd effectively mixing and matching his perimeter rotation to cover his stars — produces a top-10 defense. Dončić wins MVP as the Mavs top 50 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2009-10 and 2010-11. Dallas becomes the first Western team since the CD-era Warriors to make two straight Finals — and, this time, has the firepower to finish the job.
If everything falls apart
Thompson struggles with accuracy, shot selection and lateral quickness, grinding out both the offensive and defensive tackles of what has become a smooth-running Mavericks machine. Washington can’t replicate Jones’ work at the point of attack, and Kidd has to start robbing Peter to pay Paul with his lineup decisions, looking for viable two-way lineups to no avail. Irving is again missing significant time to an injury that is piling up again too heavy workload at Dončićleaving him gushing come spring. The Mavs still have enough talent to make the playoffs, but lack the flexibility and physicality they found last season, bowing out early to a more rounded favorite.
A fancy spin
Looking past Dončić and Irving, Dereck Lively II is Dallas’ best fantasy option. A lively open training camp as the starting center, and being Luka’s primary edge rusher and lob threat has its advantages. More minutes should equate to more fantasy production with rebounds and blocked shots.
Speaking of blocking shots, Daniel Gafford is worth drafting, even if he sees fewer minutes in the time split with Lively. Gafford has shown he can be a viable fantasy asset in 20 minutes a night.
Finally, let’s talk about the potential revival of Klay Thompson with Dallas. Thompson is coming off his worst fantasy performance since his junior year, but the soon-to-be 35-year-old looks motivated and excited for what lies ahead. With so much gravitas to Luka and Kyrie, Klay will have plenty of opportunities to be the 3-point specialist fantasy managers need in the back end of drafts. — And Titus
schedule 2024-25
The Mavs have won 50-plus in two of the last three seasons, and this year’s team feels deeper and more powerful than those models. Even in a crowded West, I’ll take over.
