Naji Marshall's transformation in key area is making him the Mavericks' third star

The Dallas Mavericks brought in an impressive victory at home against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night ahead of Thanksgiving, as Dallas had six players in double figures en route to a 129-114 win. The Mavericks were in an eerily similar situation last season when they played the Knicks at home, as they were without Luka Doncic in that game as well and had a big lead for most of that contest.

Despite Doncic missing his fourth consecutive game on Wednesday night, Dallas’ intensity never faltered in this game like it did last year when they nearly allowed the Knicks to come back from a 20-plus point lead at home.

The Mavericks kept their foot on the pedal all evening, and the full array of Dallas’ shot creation ability without Doncic was prevalent all evening long. One player whose shot-creation ability was evident once again was none other than Naji Marshall, as Marshall had his fourth consecutive 20-plus point performance with 24 points in the game.

Marshall’s float game is wildly efficient, and he’s done a better job at converting on drives in transition and on attacks off closeouts recently as well. Marshall’s shot creation and passing ability were both severely underrated skills in his game by many fans and analysts heading into this season, and now he’s proving everyone wrong in an accentuated role on offense with Doncic out.

Naji Marshall’s 3-point shooting is taking him to another level offensively

Something that has also contributed to Marshall’s effectiveness on offense recently has been his 3-point shot going in at a higher clip, evidenced by performances such as his 2-6 shooting from downtown against New York last night.

Marshall is only shooting 28.6 percent from outside on the season, but he was shooting just barely over 17 percent a little over a week ago. His improvement of recent has been drastic and more reminiscent of the shooting ability he displayed with the New Orleans Pelicans last season, as Marshall has shot 34.3 percent from 3-point range for the month of November, and has shot 55.6 percent from distance in his last four games.

With Marshall becoming more of a threat as a shooter, this will only increase the amount of driving lanes for him and other Mavericks. Hopefully Marshall’s higher efficiency from 3-point land continues, as that was one of the biggest limitations on him becoming a true three-level scorer early in the season for Dallas.

Teammates were even more hesitant to pass Marshall the ball around the arc occasionally until recently, as Marshall was mainly scoring in the paint or mid-range for Dallas prior to this recent stretch.

Marshall is now shooting the ball with the utmost confidence, and his role on this Mavericks team continues to grow more expansive by the game. Marshall is playing completely free on the offensive end, and perhaps making a wild one-legged 3-pointer in Denver four games ago was all it took for him to unlock this last part of his offensive repertoire.