Mavericks Preseason Battles: Point Guard Leads Way

With a new roster comes new questions. Who starts and is the backup at point guard? Who backs up Tyson Chandler? Who will lessen the minutes on Monta Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki? Who’ll take over the small forward minutes behind Chandler Parsons?

Thankfully, the preseason is here to answer these questions.

This time we ask,

Which position battle are you focused on?

Brian Gosset (@Gosset41): Point guard. Even though it should go Nelson, Harris, Felton, I believe the fact that any of the three can start for the Mavs. But the fact that they’ll be battling for time, will make each one that much better. It will also be interesting to see if Monta will run any point with one of the three at the two like last season with Jose Calderon.

Kieran Hairell (@khairell): PG. With Nelson, Felton, & Harris (as the wild card PG/SG) – it should be quite a war for the starting spot. I think Nelson will start the most at PG, but I imagine Carlisle will play match-ups and alternate the starts throughout the season.

Winston Zhang (@The_Stepback): Ditto with Kieran. PG is the most intriguing spot simply because there’s no real clear favourite to start or to play the most minutes. Carlisle’s management of the position will be a big key to the Mavs success this upcoming season.

Bailey Rogers (@BRogers): I will keep being the contrarian. I’m not too worried about PG–Carlisle will figure that out. I’m interested to see who becomes the go to backup at the wing spot. Feels like Richard Jefferson has the advantage based solely on RC’s preference for vets, but I want to see whether Aminu and Crowder can do anything to earn some significant playing time.

Sameer Moosa: It has to be the PG battle. I especially want to see who will get the bulk of the PG minutes in late game situations. I personally think Jameer will win the late game minutes over Devin Harris and Felton but those two could very well have stretches of games where they play well enough to stay in the game. Carlisle awards players who play hard and it’s just a matter of who is playing well at that time.

Ace Feltman (@MFFeLtman): The bench has some battles to sort out with Richard Jefferson and Al-Farouq Aminu and Jae Crowder, Greg Smith and Brandan Wright, but the big battle and the obvious battle is the one in the starting lineup that still needs solving.

While Jameer Nelson is the odds on favorite to win the starting point guard job –and I expect him to win it outright–both Devin Harris and Raymond Felton will both figure into the point guard rotation. However I think Devin Harris will see a lot more time at the two guard where the latter part of his career has seen him spend time but Monta Ellis is young and fresh and won’t need too many minutes on the bench to recoup.

With that said the main thing I’m watching for is just where and how much and heck, if Raymond Felton is going to play 15 minutes or more per game, because Nelson and Devin are going to get theres.

Rami Michail (@RamiMichail): The PG battle is probably the most talked about and rightfully so, but I’m more focused on who backs up Dirk and Chandler. Aminu and Greg Smith can make strong cases to get plenty of court time with a strong preseason. Also, Ivan Johnson and Charlie Villanueva can earn their way onto the team with great showings.