Nobody is confident in the Dallas Mavericks, and that's perfectly understandable

Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes' Record Projection: 42-40

"Size won't be an issue for the Dallas Mavericks and, by extension, neither should defense. Between Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II, Cooper Flagg, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, Klay Thompson, and Max Christie, the Mavs are overstuffed with rangy forwards and centers," Hughes wrote.

"Don't be surprised to see units where Flagg or Washington has to slide all the way down to the 2.
All that length will be of little help on offense, where D'Angelo Russell has his work cut out for him as the team's only reliable ball-handler until Kyrie Irving returns.

"Spacing will be at a premium if Dallas intends to put its best overall players on the floor, which will make Russell's pick-and-roll work harder. Not only that, but Flagg profiles as perhaps the rotation's second-best shot creator. Expect major slogs on both ends as the Mavs overwhelm opponents with their size on D but struggle to get anything going offensively."

Mavericks Likely to Finish Around .500

Just looking at the names on paper, one would think it would be a good team: Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, P.J. Washington. Naji Marshall, and many more.

But I'm concerned about the backcourt depth and the lack of shooting. The D'Angelo Russell signing doesn't move the needle for me unless he's back to shooting 36-38% from three-point range again. If he picks up where he left off last year, which was the worst shooting season of his career at 31.4% from deep, the Mavs could be in trouble this season.

If I were to take a guess, the team will finish around 40-42, as I think the offense is going to struggle to score, and I'm not convinced the defense is good enough to carry them to a lot of low-scoring wins.