2014-15 NBA Season Preview: Dallas Mavericks

Welcome to theScore's preview of the 2014-15 Dallas Mavericks. Visit our preseason hub for previews of all 30 NBA teams.

Dallas Mavericks

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2013-14

For a team that barely snuck into the playoffs and bowed out in the first round, the Mavericks had a lot to hang their hats on last season.

Behind a healthy Dirk Nowitzki, a rejuvenated Monta Ellis, and a glut of outside shooting, the Mavs jumped eight games in the win column, matched Miami for the league's second-most productive offense (109 points per 100 possessions), and put a legitimate scare into the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round.

Dallas was the only team to take the Spurs to seven games, or to even hold a lead on them in a series. This team was good, bordering on very good.

What ultimately sunk them, though, was a leaky defense that ranked in the bottom 10 during the regular season, and was the worst among all playoff participants. It's unclear if they'll be any better on that end in 2014-15, but they'll undoubtedly feel the loss of their most versatile defender in Shawn Marion. While the incoming Tyson Chandler offers an upgrade in the middle, he's entering his 14th NBA season, struggled to stay on the court last season, and had leg, back, and rib injuries wreak havoc on his mobility.

Offseason Roundup

Dirk Nowitzki wants to be a Maverick for life. So much so that the 36-year-old, 16-year NBA veteran was willing to take a major pay cut to stay with the franchise for another three years.

While they locked their best player up at a discounted rate, the Mavs were free to gamble in free agency. So they rolled the dice on 25-year-old swingman in Chandler Parsons, signed him to a monster offer sheet that made him the team's highest-paid player, and back-doored their division rival Houston Rockets in the process.

Whether or not the deal turns out to be an overpay - as many suspect it will - there are reasons to be optimistic about Parsons' fit in Dallas. He's an intelligent wing who can pass, space the floor, and move well without the ball, all of which should make him a good complement to the ball-dominant, jackknifing, drive-and-kick stylings of Monta Ellis.

Perhaps most importantly, the Mavericks will rely on him to fill the three-point shooting void left by the departed Jose Calderon and Vince Carter, the team's two most prolific long-range bombers last season.

Additions

*PF Dirk Nowitzki (3/$25M)
SF Chandler Parsons (3/$46M)
C Tyson Chandler (trade)
*PG Devin Harris (4/$16.6M)
PG Jameer Nelson (2/$5.6M)
PG Raymond Felton (trade)
SF Al-Farouq Aminu (2/$2.1M)
SF Richard Jefferson (1/$1.4M)
C Greg Smith (trade)
*C Bernard James (undisclosed)

*Re-signed

Departures

PG Jose Calderon (trade)
G/F Vince Carter (free agency)
SF Shawn Marion (free agency)
C Samuel Dalembert (trade)
C DeJuan Blair (trade)
SG Shane Larkin (trade)
SG Wayne Ellington (trade)

2014 Draft

Valuing experience over youth and immediate success over long-term potential, the Mavericks eschewed the 2014 draft altogether. Having traded away their first-rounder back in 2011, they shipped their two second-round picks to the New York Knicks in the trade that brought in Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton.

Starting 5

• PG Devin Harris
• SG Monta Ellis
• SF Chandler Parsons
• PF Dirk Nowitzki
• C Tyson Chandler

Breakout Player: Brandan Wright

Wright has sort of already broken out, without anybody really noticing. The issue is that he hasn't been able stay on the floor. An injured left shoulder (the same shoulder Wright needed to have surgically repaired back in 2009) limited him to just 58 games in 2013-14, which, amazingly, was still the second-most games the seven-year vet had ever played in a season. The 18.6 minutes per game he averaged were a career high.

The good news is that in those 58 games, Wright, a tremendous leaper, shot-blocker and all-around athlete, finally showed signs of cashing in on his raw abilities. He shot 67.7 percent from the field and 76.4 percent on shots close to the basket, where nearly half of his attempts came from, per NBA.com. His true shooting percentage of 69.5 would've ranked first among qualified players, while his 23.6 PER would have been 13th, just a shade behind Nowitzki and one spot ahead of James Harden.

Wright stands at just 6-foot-9, but thanks to a wingspan measured at 7-foot-4, he plays the majority of his minutes at center. He projects to play backup there to Tyson Chandler, whose skill set he very closely approximates. But with Chandler carrying his own injury concerns and the Mavericks likely to play cautious with his health, the 26-year-old Wright could wind up seeing a substantial minutes bump.

Season Expectations

With Parsons in the fold and tactical wizard Rick Carlisle still at the helm, the Mavericks should again trot out a killer offensive unit. Nowitzki, despite being closer to 40 than 30, will remain the centerpiece. He has the league's most age-impervious game, and so long as he can rely on his patented fadeaway jumper, basketball's greatest-ever 7-foot marksman is going to be a matchup nightmare.

Dallas remains fairly thin at the point guard position, and while Devin Harris will be a considerable defensive upgrade over Calderon, he isn't nearly the shooter or pick-and-roll threat his former platoon-mate was. With Jameer Nelson and Raymond Felton backing Harris up, the Mavericks don't have a single point guard who finished last season with a league-average PER.

For now, though, defense remains their biggest question mark. Parsons is a perfectly capable wing defender, but he doesn't offer the flexibility that Marion did, and both Nowitzki and Ellis are minuses on that end. Chandler is probably the wild card here. If he can even come close to backing up his claim that he's a better player now than he was in 2011, when he anchored Dallas' championship defense, then this team could be downright scary. 

In any event, the Mavs' ability to get stops will likely determine how much noise they can make in what promises to be another loaded Western Conference.

1 to Follow on Social Media

On top of getting friendly with the resident camel, Chandler Parsons has quickly enamored himself with the Mavericks community, making his social media presence felt in Big D.

Not only will he answer your questions, he'll take that old outdated bobblehead off your hands:

He doesn't forget a birthday:

And he probably knows all the lyrics to your favorite Oasis song: