Mavericks' ferocious new identity is nowhere to be found this season

At 2-5, the Dallas Mavericks have fallen short of many of their early-season expectations, with injuries derailing their season once again. While trying to mitigate Kyrie Irving's absence has undoubtedly been Dallas' biggest issue so far, injuries to their frontcourt have not helped their cause whatsoever.

Daniel Gafford just returned from an ankle injury, and while he's played well through two games so far this season, he's on a 20-minute restriction, and Dallas' other prominent big men are already out due to injury, with Dereck Lively II out due to a knee sprain and Anthony Davis out with a calf strain. While Dallas' size and physicality down low were something they hung their hat on going into this season, their big men trio hasn't all been healthy together for a single game yet.

Obviously, Dallas' formula of winning through rim protection, rebounding, and physicality will be hard pressed to work against every team until Irving rejoins the lineup, but other teams with bigger lineups such as the Houston Rockets are the kind of teams Dallas should be able to match stylistically, yet one of the biggest reasons Dallas lost to the Rockets on Monday night was because of their lack of defensive bigs.

Mavericks' size and physicality haven't been their strengths so far

Despite only allowing eight 3-pointers in their loss to Houston on Monday, the Mavericks still couldn't pull away with a victory, as they were out-rebounded by a 54-40 margin, also allowing 62 points in the paint for the Rockets. Dallas' perimeter defense has been decent for their standards over the past few games, but without 48 minutes of solid rim protection and defense, there are bound to be some leaks through the cracks.

The Rockets were getting to the second level at will versus Dallas on Monday night, as Dallas had no one to contain Alperen Sengun's post-up and dribble-drive game, and even Gafford struggled mightily against the promising Turkish big man. Dallas opted to play Dwight Powell for roughly nine minutes, but went with Moussa Cisse for most of the remaining center minutes, as Powell's defense can be futile at times during this juncture of his career.

Needless to say, the Mavericks need one of Lively II or Davis to return soon, as they won't be able to survive against bigger and physical opponents like the Rockets if this isn't the case. The Mavericks already saw how another team with solid big man depth in the San Antonio Spurs made Dallas' rim defense look nonexistent, and that was with Davis and Lively II healthy, so the Mavericks must be able to hang their hat on their supposed identity once they return.

The Mavericks and Nico Harrison bought in on this identity with the ideology that having three two-way big men would give them 48 minutes of rim protection and rim-running, but if not even two of the three bigs can ever stay healthy, which hasn't been the case barring a brief stretch toward the end of last season, then Harrison's plan could quickly fall through before the potential of this trio is ever really seen.