Dallas Mavericks: How the latest news impacts the team in Orlando

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle on what improvements Mavs need to make

Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle met with the media on Tuesday for the final time before the team arrives in Orlando. They depart on Wednesday morning. Mavericks fans can watch the coach’s entire press conference here.

Carlisle touched on the two areas he wanted to see the most improvement in during the session. Read his quote below.

"“I do think we need to get better in a couple of areas. I think defensively we really have a chance to improve. That’s an area where we were in the 20s in defense at the beginning of the year. Now, we are around 14 or 15 I think. The top ten is a goal of ours, so we would like to get there.”"

Carlisle was close. The Mavericks currently sit 17th in defensive rating this season. They want to be a title contender. The three favorites to win it all rank inside the top five in defensive rating. Improvements on that end are key to Dallas making a championship run in Orlando and beyond.

Here is what he had to say about the second area.

"“The other thing is free throw shooting. During this period, our guys have done a tremendous amount of work on just concentrating and getting better.”"

He called them two both “areas of upside for us”.  Dallas is 15th in both free throw attempts and percentage. The Mavericks need to get to the line more and knock down their free throws. Luka Doncic must lock-in here. There is no reason he should not be over 80 percent from the foul line in Orlando.

Expect the Dallas Mavericks to make the adjustments and be ready for a playoff run. They are a young and hungry team. Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis will get their first playoff experience in Orlando. The Mavs have surprised all season, so why should the restart be any different? It won’t be.