Dallas Mavericks: Small Things to Pick Up from First Days

After 3 days, there are a few interesting points we can pick up on from the Dallas Mavericks. Here are three of them.

Media day is through and the first couple practices for the Dallas Mavericks squad are in the books. The Mavs organization and those that work with them are ready for the season and it shows after these first few days.

Dallas is definitely one of the more intriguing teams in the coming season for the NBA. At one point, when all hope seemed to be lost, the “experts believed the Mavs to be all but finished with their run of success. Yet, by some miracle, we landed some great players in the late days of free agency and are now one of the bubble teams that could really make a splash.

Most of the bigger sites are struggling to see the potential even after the moves and so Dallas is once again in a position that they are familiar with. That is the position of being counted out by most.

The thing about being right on the edge of irrelevant and relevant in most eyes is that people want to know which side the team will land on. For that reason, there was some definite excitement associated with the Dallas Mavericks media day and first open practice.

Here are a few things we can gather already about the Mavs.

Rick Carlisle is Excited

For a man that shows essentially no emotion, Rick Carlisle is ready to see his new team in action. I’m sure shortly after the dust had settled, Carlisle was already scheming on how he could use his wide array of players in different situations.

Having the availability of some really great defensive players definitely has its perks. When you realize that your star player is and always will be Dirk Nowitzki, a coach begins to realize the importance of the defensive ability from the surrounding players. Swapping out Zaza Pachulia and Chandler Parsons for Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes mean only good things.

Of course Carlisle realizes that the team has a long way to go before reaching their full potential, but it is no surprise that he is excited to have these new players on the squad. This could be a very different looking style for the Mavericks this year.

Small Ball will not only be used, it is going to be Effective

One of the hottest topics throughout media day was that of potential small ball plans for the Mavs. The Smoking Cuban’s very own Isaac Harris tweeted about one potential lineup with probably more to come.

The key to this small ball lineup and most that we do see will be utilizing all the guards we have on the team. Justin Anderson will be getting a lot of playing time this year and the Mavs still want to utilize Barea and Harris as much as possible. That is going to result in smaller lineups.

Barnes looks the part of an ideal small ball 4 and hopefully Dallas can utilize him in that role to help limit Dirk going too far over his preferred minutes. The addition of Quincy Acy cannot be overlooked either.

The Inside Man

Here at The Smoking Cuban, we have done everything in our power to provide our fans and readers with the most up to date Mavericks news that we possibly can. As we have added more and more writers to our staff, we have also made it a priority to get as close to the team as possible.

That is why one of our site editors, Isaac Harris, will be reporting and tweeting from the inside as we have the credentials to be close to the team and the rest of the media this season. This level of dedication is all for our readers, as it has always been, to give them the opportunity to hear all breaking Mavs news as soon as it lands.

Next: Roundtable: Who Will Be the Mavs X-Factor?

Although we are only a few days into the training camps and practices for the Dallas Mavericks, we can already tell it is going to be a fun season. Keep up with all Mavs news here at our site or follow us on Twitter at @TheSmokingCuban.