Dallas Mavericks: The Mavs strength is more than just the stars

The Dallas Mavericks are on many people’s radars this year because of the elite duo in Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. However, there are other real strengths to this team.

The NBA season is still too far away and those who want to talk about the league are trying to do so by saying outlandish things or trying to re-write history. The Dallas Mavericks are getting writers from both ends of the spectrum talking about anything from them being a top tier team to a bottom-dwelling, top 5 pick. Neither of these are likely going to be true.

In reality, the Mavs have put together a team that looks like they can be pretty good. They have paired Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis together to make a great star pairing that can rival the best in the league. A 6’7″ playmaking point forward joining a 7’3″ sharpshooting big is about as good an offensive pair as you can put out there.

However, the two budding superstars are not the only strength of this team. The Mavs have also found a way to put together a very good bench that would look good on just about any team in the league. This bench deserves more recognition than it is getting.

Dallas has a bunch of guys that will be ready to come in for the first five that can all be useful on the court. With a projected starting lineup of Delon Wright, Tim Hardaway Jr., Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Dwight Powell, this leaves Dallas with a bench consisting of: J.J. Barea, Seth Curry, Jalen Brunson, Maxi Kleber, Dorian Finney-Smith, Justin Jackson, Courtney Lee, Ryan Broekhoff and Boban Marjanovic.

All of these guys have experience playing significant minutes in the NBA at some point or another in their careers. Many of them have been with the Mavs for several years and know the offensive sets and how to work in Carlisle’s schemes. The new additions have NBA experience and are only going to help at this point.

I really think the Mavs may have a top 3-5 bench in the NBA this year. With guys that can help straight from 6-15 and a lot of them with specific roles that teams would love to have like the shooting of Seth Curry or the defense of Maxi Kleber.

This Mavs team will surprise some people because they will do well when the starters are in, but will be actually building leads when the backups are there. That happened some with the team last year, but I expect it even more this year.

This Mavs team has a lot more strengths than just KP and Luka and people are going to learn that soon enough. Whether it is the bench, the other starters or the coaching staff, this is a good Mavs team that is going to impress people.