DALLAS — The brand new-look Dallas Mavericks have already taught us one factor: They’re going to be enjoyable.
Dallas smashed the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder 146-111 on Saturday within the debut video games for commerce deadline additions P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, constructing a demonstrative lead early with a franchise-record-setting 47 level first quarter and parrying away the Thunder’s solely actual comeback try once they reduce the result in 4 factors within the second. It was high-flying basketball that includes 11 dunks from six completely different Mavericks, only one away from the group’s highest variety of dunks in a sport this season. Each new additions, in reality, scored their first factors with their new franchise on lobs from Luka Dončić.
“It’s superb,” mentioned Gafford when requested about Dončić referring to him as the kind of middle he’s wished for years. “A man of his caliber liking a man like me, it simply looks like I’ve by no means had that occur earlier than.”
Dallas (30-23) now has two such facilities, though breakout rookie Dereck Energetic II missed Saturday’s sport, his fifth straight, with a damaged nostril. Energetic is seventh within the league in dunks this season, however Gafford is eighth with out pick-and-roll maestros like Dončić and Kyrie Irving feeding him passes. When Energetic returns, maybe in one of many group’s two remaining video games earlier than the All-Star break, Dallas will be capable of deploy 48 minutes of high-rising middle play. Which is, in fact, the principle purpose that the group sought to accumulate him.
Washington additionally dunked twice, matching the entire Grant Williams, the person he changed, tallied in his whole 47-game stint in Dallas. Williams didn’t match, and up to date studies that his character exasperated his on-court struggles in Dallas have some fact to them. However it was his wrestle to slot in on the court docket that was the first purpose he was moved earlier than the commerce deadline. Since common supervisor Nico Harrison took over, the Mavericks’ entrance workplace has very visibly skewed towards placing extra athleticism round Dončić. Williams was a quick departure from that ethos — albeit in an offseason that noticed the Mavericks additionally purchase former Slam Dunk Contest winner Derrick Jones Jr. — and his lack of ability to assault closeouts or function a prime point-of-attack defender wasn’t what Dallas wished. As soon as Williams’ taking pictures struggles started, the entrance workplace started reconsidering his match.
In Washington, the Mavericks now have a participant way more able to attacking on the transfer. Mavericks coach Jason Kidd highlighted one particular play in his post-game feedback, one the place Jones assisted Washington for a straightforward dunk after Washington’s drive-and-kick left him free on the rim.
Dunks are only one illustration of athleticism, but it surely’s a telling one. In Dončić’s rookie season, Dallas averaged 5.2 dunks per sport. That common has declined in every ensuing season, cratering at simply 3.7 such makes an attempt per sport in 2022-23. This season’s Mavericks have come closest (4.9 per sport) to matching the group’s mark in Dončić’s rookie season, and the additions of Washington and Gafford would possibly lastly transfer this unit previous that 2018-19 mark.
Dallas is led by two non-dunkers, certain, with Dončić and Irving finishing simply two apiece this season. However dunks are a illustration of autonomy.
“(It’s) the power to have athletes who can put the ball on the ground and never have to fret about Luka and (Kyrie) doing all of the work,” Kidd mentioned.
Dallas’ success this season has been intertwined with its 3-point taking pictures: The group is 23-9 when changing extra photographs from distance than its opponent. However Dallas beat Oklahoma Metropolis though they took (37) and made (15) fewer 3s than its season-long common. And for the reason that Thunder made 17 such photographs in a shedding effort, the win was Dallas’ seventh within the 21 cases the place it transformed fewer lengthy balls than its opponent.
“We’ve been a group that’s going to shoot a variety of 3s,” Kidd mentioned. “There can be nights the place we try this due to the double groups, however there’s (additionally) going to be nights the place we will dominate the paint.”
Good groups study to win in several methods, and Saturday’s win felt like an schooling in that. The Thunder’s younger core has made the league discover them this season, and so they arrived in Dallas on 4 days of relaxation. However the Mavericks now have simply two rotation gamers over the age of 25, and the group’s hectic schedule — this was their fourth sport in six nights — didn’t cease them from operating over the Thunder to the tune of 33 quick break factors. And whereas the Mavericks’ offensive rebounding stats weren’t as dominant, Gafford did earn a half-minute ovation from the American Airways Middle crowd with this contested rebound that led to free throws.
The commerce deadline additions symbolize a doubling down on the explosiveness Dallas got down to obtain early this season, one which has the group eighth within the league in tempo. Dallas is simply twenty sixth in offensive rebounding proportion, however Gafford’s inclusion ought to assist tick that quantity upward. Within the Dončić period, Dallas has by no means been this athletic with this many gamers able to two-way manufacturing. And after two lengthy months slogging by way of numerous accidents, Dallas seems heading in the right direction to lastly be absolutely wholesome following the All-Star break. We’ll study then, absolutely, how good this group would possibly truly be.
That’s crucial query, one which can both vindicate or elevate extra eyebrows concerning the value Dallas paid to vary the group on the deadline. It isn’t concerning the entrance workplace buying and selling two future first-round picks — they needed to in some unspecified time in the future — however about whether or not making these strikes now represented the most effective the group might yield out of what they needed to spend. That can be a operating season-long narrative to maintain checking in on.
What Dallas did on Saturday definitely appeared dominant in a way we haven’t typically seen this season. It’ll take extra time to know the way actual that’s. However that journey, if Saturday instructed us something, can be a enjoyable one to witness.
(Prime photograph: Glenn James / NBAE through Getty Photographs)