Dallas Mavericks: ESPN picks Mavs as likely team turnaround candidate

NBA predictions are heating up as we get closer to the season and the Dallas Mavericks continue to be a topic of conversation from NBA journalists and experts.

The days continue to pass by as we get closer and closer to the NBA season. After a thrilling year, followed by an even more thrilling playoffs and then the most thrilling free agency period, the league has come to a near standstill, desperate for more information or just any semi-competitive basketball at all.

We are still several weeks away from basketball, but at least people are still pumping out their predictions for the season. In the latest set of predictions from ESPN, the Dallas Mavericks were brought up a couple times, once as a team and once for star player, Luka Doncic.

For the team mention, the Mavs were selected by ESPN’s panel of experts as the 4th best candidate for the team that will turn things around from last year, behind the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Clippers, in that order.

Aside from my questioning of the Clippers as a team turnaround candidate despite making the playoffs this year, I think Dallas is in the right spot on this list. There is no doubt that the Lakers and Clippers are both going to be substantially better than last year and the Pelicans have put together the pieces to make themselves a seriously dangerous team going forward. I don’t think their turnaround process begins this year, but it is definitely on its way.

The Mavs received 33 points in this poll, based on 1st, 2nd and 3rd place voting from each expert. Dallas has been predicted to be a team to watch by many analysts and experts up to this point and even more will say the same once they finally see Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis take the court together.

The predictions also have the Mavericks finishing 9th in the Western Conference, just two games out of the playoffs with a predicted record of 41-41. I think 9th is a decent prediction but I could see Dallas coming out with more wins than that.

We are all excited to see Dallas turn things around this year and get back to their winning ways, but it won’t begin for still another 56 days. Try not to stare at the clock too long, we still have a long way to go.