Grading the Mavericks performance in 2021

The Dallas Mavericks closed out 2021 with a dominating win over the Sacramento Kings, despite missing ten players, including superstar Luka Doncic. It was a fitting end to a wild calendar year for the Mavericks where the team played a franchise-high 103 games over the 365 days.

The end of a year is always the perfect time to reflect on what went down, and the Mavericks made a ton of changes. Longtime GM Donnie Nelson and head coach Rick Carlisle exited the organization after over three decades of combined service with Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd taking over in Dallas. The new regime is planning to solve the chemistry issues and find a way to make the Mavs title contenders.

Dallas has been knocked out in the first round of the playoffs for two straight years, and they want to go on a deep playoff run in 2022. 35 games into the regular season, how did the Mavericks perform? Is it fair to judge them after so many players have missed significant time? Here is a closer look.

Grading the Dallas Mavericks performance in 2021

The focus will be on just the first 35 games of the 2021-2022 season because of the significant schematic changes Dallas has made going from Carlisle to Kidd.

Making a firm judgment is difficult because of the time missed by players. Luka Doncic has played in just 21 of 35 contests with Kristaps Porzingis sitting at 26. Dwight Powell is the only player to appear in every game.

Here is a look at how the Dallas Mavericks offense and defense has performed before handing out an overall grade for the 2021 portion of their schedule.