Mavericks' supposed strength harshly comes back to bite them as their weakness

Jared A’Latorre

Dallas Mavericks, Klay Thompson / Sam Hodde/GettyImages

The Dallas Mavericks made moves in the offseason to address their lack of shooting in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

The Mavericks have had streaky moments at times shooting the basketball this season, but the overall confidence and consistency from most have been missing so far.

It's safe to say the injury bug has already hit Dallas slightly, but it shouldn't be long until Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington come back from injury. Maxi Kleber has already returned to the active roster after suffering a hamstring injury against the Phoenix Suns.

Mavs must find more consistency in their 3-point shooting

They say you can't win championships without defense.

We might as well include 3-point shooting in that conversation too.

The Dallas Mavericks made the third most 3-point shots in the 2023-24 regular season. Of course, to no one's surprise, the Celtics were the best from deep range in that regular season.

Right now, the Mavericks are ranked 20th in 3-point shooting, shooting 34.8 percent from deep. This has been a noticeable problem as of late.

Against Denver, Dallas shot 30.3 percent from deep. Against Chicago, a game they won, the Mavs shot 31.6 percent from deep. Against Indiana, the Mavs actually shot much better from deep, shooting 41.7 percent from downtown, but actually lost that game due to poor defense.

The playoffs were a different story for the Mavs, as some guys became a liability shooting the ball, but we can't deny the regular season showed strides of 3-point shooting that became streaky at times, and there's no excuse as to why this current team can't achieve that same success.

While P.J. Washington has not yet found his rhythm from deep, his defense has been outstanding in the paint and perimeter to make up for it.

The Mavericks are going to have to rely on defense night in and night out if they continue to struggle from deep, which isn't necessarily the end of the world. However, with some opponents that just shoot the rock incredibly well, Dallas is just going to have to shoot better.

This was why Dallas made some massive offseason moves to begin with. Players like Quentin Grimes could be the steal that the league hasn't felt yet if Jason Kidd ever gives him a chance.

If Klay Thompson or Spencer Dinwiddie is struggling from deep, Grimes and Naji Marshall have to get more looks. There's too much depth on this team to struggle shooting the basketball.

Kyrie Irving has pretty much been the only consistent Maverick thus far, and that's simply not going to cut it if the Mavs want to turn things around.

The perimeter shooting struggles can be fixed, but it's also going to take coaching to get the right guys in the game when others are struggling in a certain moment. 3-point shooting was supposed to be a strength of this team, and Dallas' shot creators have to get their shooters some better looks.

Jared A’Latorre

Jared is the Site Expert of Sport DFW, and oversees Dallas sports all the time. He also spent time as a Senior Contributor to The Smoking Cuban, The Landry Hat and Gig Em' Gazette. His work has been featured on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports and MSN. He also covered various sports at Oklahoma State and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Media from Oklahoma State. He's done play-by-play radio broadcasting in North Central Oklahoma and currently does play-by-play radio broadcasting for high school football in North Texas. Jared is also a co-host for Grizzlies Digest, covering the Memphis Grizzlies. In his free time, Jared loves watching sports, spending time with family and friends and watching anything Billy Bob Thornton related.