Dallas Mavericks: 3 teams that would have to underperform for Mavs to make playoffs

The Dallas Mavericks may be one of the more talented teams in the NBA, but they are likely on the fringes of the Western Conference playoffs at this point. Who needs to underperform for the Mavs to play more than 82 games?

The Western Conference is split up into essentially three groups of teams: the locks, the bubble teams and the maybe next year’s. The Dallas Mavericks are undoubtedly in the bubble category, even though many people want to try and force them into the bottom category. This is going to be a good year for the Mavs.

Let’s break down the top group and the bottom group here so that we can see what teams the Mavs shouldn’t be too worried about this year. And more importantly, we can see the teams that absolutely do matter.

There are six teams in the West that seem to be absolute locks for the playoffs in my opinion. In no particular order, those teams are: the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers. Barring any injury setbacks, these six teams seem to be the top six teams in the West this year.

On the other end of things, there are five teams that I do not believe will be in the playoff contention at this time. I called this group the “maybe next year’s” but in reality I think there are only two teams that could be ready by next year. Those two are the New Orleans Pelicans and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The other three teams that are not ready to compete for a playoff spot at this point are the Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder. This leaves four teams that are on the bubble for this year. These other three teams are the ones that Dallas is hoping underperform this year.