The Dallas Mavericks (12-22) have returned home from their recent winless road trip for a New Years Day bout with the Philadelphia 76ers (17-14).
Dallas, who has struggled mightily on the road this season, managed to lose to the Warriors, Kings and Blazers while on their California trip. In fairness, who amongst us hasn’t lost a bit of focus on a work trip around the Holidays? Thus, a month that started out promising for the Mavs ended with a thud, losing five out of their last six games in December
to finish the month 6-7 (!).
On the other hand, the Sixers just stopped a three-game losing streak of their own on Tuesday night, as VJ Edgecombe hit the game winner in overtime for Philly in a three-point win against the Grizzlies in Memphis. This is the second and final matchup of the season between these two teams, with Philadelphia having come out on top in the first matchup less than two weeks ago.
With the new year in mind, what resolutions can the Mavericks make to ensure growth in 2026? Here are a few ideas.
Take more threes
The Mavs are one of just three teams in the NBA to take more mid-range jumpers than three pointers, per Cleaning the Glass. Sacramento and Houston are the other two, and they make sense given their personnel (Derozan and Durant are specialists). The Mavericks don’t have a guy like that, so why are they shooting the sixth most middies in the league, while shooting the fifth fewest three’s in the NBA? That must work itself out, or they will continue to do what they’ve done for most of the year: Lose games because they lose the math.
Rebound the basketball
According to Cleaning the Glass, the Mavericks have the fourth worst offensive rebounding rate in the NBA, while also having a bottom half defensive rebounding rate. The Mavericks are giving up an offensive rebound 30% of the time, which is their worst offensive rebounds allowed rate since 2014-15. Part of this conundrum is a roster issue, as they lack positional size with the guards and Anthony Davis isn’t exactly an imposing presence inside. But part of it is a coaching thing, too. During Jason Kidd’s tenure in Dallas, he has only once had a top 15 rebounding team, and that was his first year in 2021-22. Since then, they have been in the bottom seven in offensive rebounding each of the four years, and bottom twelve in defensive rebounds. Simply put, when the Mavericks are serious about competing, they must be serious about rebounding the basketball.
Pick a direction
Time is running out on these Dallas Mavericks and their hope of running a “two timeline” approach. The issue? The first timeline is an awful basketball team. The Mavericks net rating as a team is -4.2 points per 100 possessions, which is the worst they’ve posted in the advanced data era, which goes back to 2003. Which means, yes, those teams that were blatantly tanking in the late stages of Dirk’s tenure were better than this team. The worst part? This team was trying to win! We’ve got tons of great trade deadline content up here at Mavs Moneyball already, with much more to come. The reason for that is because of this. The team is bad at basketball, and there’s no sense in keeping it together.
How to watch
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30p CT from the American Airlines Center. This game will be available on KFAA Channel 29, as well as Mavs TV. Additionally, if you’re outside of the DFW market, NBA TV will have a national broadcast of the game, which is assumed to be a simulcast of the Mavs TV production.
