ESPN Projects Dallas Mavericks to Finish 9th in West

It’s still July and ESPN has released their early projections for the Western Conference. Is Dallas really going to miss the playoffs?

After an offseason of rebounding once again in Dallas, most people around the league would agree that Dallas didn’t do too bad considering their circumstances after the first initial days of free agency.

But even with the addition of Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, ESPN seems to think Dallas won’t make the playoffs next season.

In releasing their early projections for the Western Conference, ESPN is predicting eight other teams to finish ahead of the Mavericks next season.

Golden State, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers are common locks as the top three seeds in the West next year, but after that, it gets interesting.

ESPN had the rest of the West finishing as…

4.) Portland

5.) Utah

6.) Oklahoma City

7.) Memphis

8.) Houston

I have many issues with their predictions starting with Portland finishing fourth after just adding Evan Turner this offseason. I realize they finished 5th last season, but simply feel other teams in the West have gotten better.

I get the hype with Utah and the starting unit in Memphis, but Oklahoma City is intriguing without Durant. They are the hardest to predict in my opinion.

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Houston is a whole different story.

Dallas deserves every bit to be in the playoff talks in the Western Conference going into the season. Here is the description that ESPN put with their Dallas prediction…

“The Mavericks added Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut and a player named Curry (Steph’s brother, Seth) this offseason, but don’t expect this team to become the Dallas Warriors. Our panel projects the Mavericks to see a decrease in wins this season. Age is a big issue here: Dirk Nowitzki is 38, Deron Williams is 32, Wesley Matthews will be 30 in October and Bogut will be 32 in November.”

They also project Dallas to finish with 40 wins compared to 42 from last year.

Read the full article on ESPN’s Western Conference predictions here.

Aside from what ESPN and others think of Dallas, the Mavericks are going to surprise some people this year.