Dallas Mavericks: Boban Marjanovic will play a unique role for team this year

The Dallas Mavericks may not have gotten any of the big name free agents this summer, but they did get some of the biggest players. Boban Marjanovic is known as a big body, which is exactly what the Mavs brought him in to be.

Aside from being an internet sensation for his size, likability and bromance with Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic plays a unique but helpful role on the court. The Dallas Mavericks took a low-risk chance on the big man from Serbia in hopes that they could find good lineup matches and opponents where he is most useful.

The fact is, Boban is by no means the fastest guy on the court. He moves alright for his size and can control the paint, but he is definitely a switch target for opponents when he is in the game. In a very switch-heavy league, that sounds like a disaster, but there are ways that the Mavs can utilize the big man without leaving the defense too susceptible.

The first way is to play him outside of crunch time. This is obviously a pretty easy task for the Mavs as Boban isn’t really an ideal crunch time player for any reasons outside of rebounding. I expect to see a lot of Maxi Kleber at center during crunch time this season, due to his defensive abilities.

The next best way to get Boban successful time this season is by playing the matchups. There is a chance that Marjanovic just landed in a perfect situation for himself thanks to Rick Carlisle‘s constant lineup changes based on matchups. There will be a handful of centers that Boban matches up against better than Dwight Powell or Maxi.

Marjanovic has shown that he can be an effective player in fairly restricted minutes. For his career, he is averaging over 6 points per game while getting fewer than 10 minutes a night on average. He has also averaged 4 rebounds per game in that limited time. Per 36 is not a reliable statistic in this case, but it gives you an idea of how efficient Boban has been in his career. He is averaging over 22 points and 14.5 rebounds per 36.

I would love to see Boban getting 12-15 minutes a night on average, but I recognize there are games he is not going to be on the court and there are some where he will likely play more. The thing I worry about is that people overlook how much more talented Boban is than Salah Mejri was.

Dallas had a few options at center when they decided to add Marjanovic. They could have brought back Salah or gone after several free agents that were still available at that time. The fact that they went and got Boban means that the coaching staff and front office see something in him.

Boban is going to be entertaining this year no matter how much time he gets. The Mavs have two of the biggest players in the NBA right now (the two biggest if Tacko Fall doesn’t end up in the league) and they have even bigger personalities. This is bound to be a fun season.