Dallas Mavericks: A look at the most talented Mavs team in the last 20 years
By Austin Speck
Nellie Ball
In today’s NBA, the fast-paced high volume long ranged shots are spawned from the offensive strategy by Don Nelson. At the time Nelson wanted to outrun and focus heavily on outscoring the opponent and be a little more lax on defense.
The NBA was still in the traditional low post big man style of play. Players like Shaquille O’Neal, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Marcus Camby, Vlade Divac, and others were still dominating the paint. Teams were still running their offenses through traditional big men.
For the Mavericks, the only other seven-footer with significant playing time was Shawn Bradley. Bradley was at the tail end of his career and had always struggled with bigger and stronger players than him. Even players that were nearly a foot shorter than him were putting him on a poster. Cue Tracy McGrady‘s dunk.
The shorter Danny Fortson was seen in limited playing time as a depth center. Undersized but a hoss of a player, Fortson put up multiple seasons of double-digit rebounds per game. But there was no offensive game or speed for him to get heavy minutes in Nelson’s system.
So What Exactly Happened?
For the Dallas Mavericks, the defense and paint protection was just nonexistent despite being one of the most talented teams in the league. If this team was playing in today’s NBA, it could possibly be a championship contender. In the end, this team was just way ahead of its time.
Small ball wasn’t in the mainstream yet and the chemistry was completely off. It would be interesting to see what this team could do in the modern NBA. It’s one of the greater “what if” Dallas Mavericks teams to think about.