FIO Preview: Dallas Mavericks

2008-2009 Dallas Mavericks season preview and fantasy impact, courtesy of Fantasy Insider Online. Read the team preview here in the Yard, and then visit the FIO link for the rest. - Zach Harper Last Season Recap: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly The Dallas Mavericks were desperate for a championship after being demolished by Dwyane Wade in 2006 and being annihilated by a bloodthirsty Warriors team in 2007. That desperation reared its ugly head in February, when it was clear that the Mavericks -- despite a 35-18 record -- had no business throwing their names in the contenders' hat. The Mavs pulled the trigger on an eight-player trade that sent Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell, and the decomposition of Keith Van Horn along with $3 million cash and two first round picks to the New Jersey Nets for Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright. The Mavericks finished the season 16-12 with Jason Kidd and made it to the playoffs before being eliminated by the New Orleans Hornets in five games. Reigning MVP, Dirk Nowitzki, had a pretty nice follow-up year by averaging 23.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, and a career-high 3.5 assists per game. Jason Terry was a nice complement to Devin Harris in the backcourt, averaging 15.5 points per game and making 136 three-pointers. Devin Harris had a nice half-season with the Mavs before he was traded, giving the team 14.4 points and 5.3 assists per game (both were career-highs). The Mavericks team defense was sneaky good for most of the season. They finished the year with 51 wins thanks to being sixth in the league in opponents' points per game (95.9) and fourth in opponents' field goal percentage (44.31%). Dallas, along with a lot of other good teams (see: Warriors, Nuggets, Suns), happened to be caught in the wrong conference during the wrong year. Last season was a year when the Warriors missed the playoffs despite getting 48 wins. The Mavericks also suffered from being in a historically good conference by getting just the seventh seed in the West thanks to 51 wins. Dallas simply didn't have enough firepower to compete in a conference that included five teams that won 55 games or more. After the trade for Jason Kidd, the Mavs were just four games over .500 and couldn't adjust to their new components. When the playoffs came around, they simply couldn't defend Chris Paul, and were abused by Tyson Chandler and David West. 2008 Draft Impact (None) The Mavericks traded away their first round pick in the Jason Kidd deal and were left with just the 51st pick, selecting Shan Foster from Vanderbilt. Foster is a slick shooting guard who has a phenomenal mid-range game. He can stretch the floor with decent consistency from the outside. He's not a great athlete and doesn't do a great job defensively. He struggles to create his own shot and needs to be set up. He isn't going to play much this year unless there are injuries to the backcourt. Foster could be a decent shooter off the bench for Dallas someday, but that day isn't in this next season. Off-Season Impact Moves Dallas owner Mark Cuban decided to change coaches after another disappointing season in terms of being a championship contender. Shortly after a first round playoff loss to the New Orleans Hornets, the Mavericks fired Avery Johnson and eventually replaced him with Rick Carlisle. The firing of Johnson was somewhat justified if only because the Mavericks felt that he wasn't a coach capable of bringing this team to the NBA title. Unfortunately, signing Carlisle didn't send them in that organizational direction. Carlisle is a good defensive-minded coach who gets the most out of players in dire situations (see: Pistons rebuilding, Pacers post-Ron Artest's attacking Detroit fans while shouting, "Attica! Attica!"). But this isn't the same type of roster that he's dealt with before. This is a soft team that should be running and gunning more than bearing down on defense (at least in the playoffs). Carlisle can get the Mavs 50 wins, but can he get them a shot at the NBA title? The Dallas Mavericks didn't do much to overhaul a roster that was revamped in February with the Jason Kidd trade. But they did make a signing that makes the Kidd trade swing more toward their favor. The Dallas Mavericks signed DeSagana Diop who was a part of the cornucopia of players sent to New Jersey in the trade for Jason Kidd. Diop's deal was worth five years and $31 million, which seems like a lot of money for a defensive specialist. Diop is a nice rebounder and a formidable shot blocker, but I don't know that he can do anything else well enough to warrant that kind of money. Maybe they feel better about playing someone making the Mid-Level Exception over Erick Dampier, who's making Andris Biedrins money for Andre Braugher production. The other moves that the Mavericks made were just patches to fill out their rotations and roster. They re-signed Jose Barea, Devean George, and Antoine Wright to fill out their bench. They also brought in the much-heralded and under-maturing Gerald Green. For someone who was supposed to be the next Tracy McGrady, Green is all over the place like Tracy Morgan. He is an NBA player with limitless athleticism. His basketball IQ is extremely low and he doesn't defend well enough to justify consistent playing time. Green is going to be a fan favorite in Dallas because he will make a couple of spectacular plays in preseason and then barely sniff meaningful minutes under Rick Carlisle. Preview for the 2008-2009 Season Team MVP: Dirk Nowitzki, PF - Dirk is still the best player on this team and can carry them for extended stretches throughout the season. He's an unmatched combination of a great shooting guard in a power forward's body. Nowitzki has greatly improved his defense over the years and is no longer a liability on that end of the floor. If he can consistently come through during the playoffs and not hide in his turtle shell when times get dramatic (47% career regular season shooter, 44.7% career playoff shooter), then the Mavericks will have a legitimate shot at competing for a title. Breakout Player: Jason Kidd, PG - Is it possible for a sure-fire Hall of Fame point guard who is fifth all-time in career assists to have a breakout season during his 15th year in the NBA? Absolutely. Kidd has practically been given to a kennel and put down in the court of popular opinion. But I think he still has a lot left as a point guard in this league. Defensively, he's going to be more of a liability this year than he ever has been. But you can mask that with solid defensive schemes. Kidd shot 6% higher for Dallas than he did for the Nets after he was traded. He can still run a team as well as anyone and will have a full training camp to get familiar with them. Look for a surprisingly really good season from Kidd. Bust Player: Erick Dampier, C / DeSagana Diop, C - You would think that with close to $15 million committed to the center position this season, the Dallas Mavericks would be set inside. Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth. Dampier has long been regarded as a palyer who doesn't earn his entire paycheck and has often left fans frustrated with his perceived under-production. In Diop, the Mavs have a player who can be a nice defensive weapon around the basket, but there's a reason that he struggles to play more minutes than Dampier. They're equally incomplete as NBA big men, just in different ways. Expect Brandon Bass to eventually outplay both of these guys. Playoff Contender or Pretender? Technically this team is still a contender because I believe they can win 50 games with their roster and should be in the playoffs with that win total. But they're completely pretending if they think they will be holding up the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of June. This is a team that has very little production inside and cannot seem to find a way to accentuate the positive and negate the terrible qualities of the Dampier/Diop combination. In dealing Devin Harris for Kidd, they decided to go with a better leader on offense instead of an athlete on defense who could disrupt the quick point guards of the Western Conference. This offseason, the Mavericks have had their small forward Josh Howard making a lot of moronic statements, from comments about smoking weed to why his skin color is the reason he doesn't celebrate the national anthem. While those words/feelings don't affect his play directly, they do affect the team and organization that he plays for. It has cast an unwanted and negative spotlight on him that will cause many annoying/frustrating questions for his teammates to answer. Going through controversy because of stupid things that have been said never factors in to the ingredients for success in the NBA. I commend the way Mark Cuban has handled it, but I find it hard to believe it won't grow tiresome as the season progresses. It won't be the sole reason this team doesn't win a championship, but it won't help either.