With the season well underway it’s time for our continuous temperature check. While we know game-in and game-out the feelings of how the Mavericks look and feel, this is our chance to zoom out. To scan the larger landscape and see where Dallas rises or falls among the league as a whole. The NBA Power Rankings Watch.
A rocky start for the Dallas Mavericks shouldn’t surprise anyone. A team that was beat up and dejected to finish last season, recovering from injury, trying to reconnect the remaining
pieces, adding a number one pick into the fold, all while missing your star guard with no reasonable back up? Yes, I’m shocked they’ve had trouble scoring.
ESPN
Rank: 21
Last week: 13
The Mavericks have averaged 1.25 points on the 64 half-court possessions when D’Angelo Russell brought the ball up the court, compared to 0.94 points on the 299 half-court possessions initiated by anybody else, according to GeniusIQ. Coach Jason Kidd clearly had hesitations about relying on Russell, as indicated by the veteran sitting out the entire second half of a loss to the Wizards, but those numbers are hard to ignore with a roster that has a glaring lack of ballhandling and playmaking while Kyrie Irving (knee surgery) is sidelined. — MacMahon
NBA
Rank: 19
Last week: 13
The Mavs’ first two games were ugly, but they had some fun in their 139-129 win against the Raptors on Sunday.
Three takeaways
- The Mavs account for two of the three instances in Week 1 where a team scored less than a point per possession. They had 92 on 101 in their opening-night loss to the Spurs and 107 on 108 two nights later against the Wizards. What’s amazing is that they shot just 42% in the paint over the two losses, getting outscored by 38 total points in the restricted area by San Antonio and Washington.
- They got their first win by turning defense into offense. After totaling 40 transition points over the first two games, the Mavs had 41 against Toronto on Sunday, according to Synergy tracking. Their 16 dunks (including four each for Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg) were four more than any other team had in a game last week.
- D’Angelo Russell played less than 24 minutes off the bench over the first two games, but he was a big part of the Mavs’ second-half rally on Sunday. Dallas’ offense has been at its best (117.6 points scored per 100 possessions) with him on the floor. That may not last (small sample size theater), but coach Jason Kidd’s insistence on starting Klay Thompson (4-for-15 from 3-point range) and four bigs could be tested.
Coming up: The Mavs have two games left on their season-opening, five-game homestand, and they’ll then travel to Mexico City to face the Pistons. They were the only team to beat the Thunder three times in the 2024-25 regular season, but Dallas will be at a rest disadvantage when it hosts the champs on Monday.
The Athletic
Rank: 28 (Tier 5: Basement Floor)
Last week: 21
Offensive rating: 106.3 (26th place)
Defensive rating: 115.9 (19th place)The Big Question: Can Cooper Flagg make up for Dallas’ guard deficit?
There are a lot of intriguing comparisons to make for Flagg’s NBA primary playmaker baptism: Grant Hill, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo. But as good as Flagg is, he’s still an 18-year-old rookie playing a demanding position while doing so next to a mix of veterans who may or may not fit together. The Mavericks were smoked against the Spurs while getting embarrassed by a Wizards team that they are theoretically built to overwhelm. Dallas finally broke out against the Raptors, and it was interesting that D’Angelo Russell was a leader of an offensive onslaught off the bench. The circumstances that got Flagg to Dallas are unique, and their offense looks like it will be inconsistent, yet intriguing.
Bleacher Report
Rank: 21
Last week: 14
Halloween Scare: Growing Pains
There are plenty of opinions about the Dallas Mavericks’ experiment of starting Cooper Flagg at point guard.
On the one hand, his lack of experience at the position has almost certainly contributed to the team’s sub-.500 record. He’s a good playmaker relative to other rookie forwards. Starting at the 1 for a team with playoff aspirations is a whole different ask. And it might take a while before the experiment yields any positive results.
On the other hand, those potential results could change the trajectory of this franchise. Jason Kidd famously played Giannis Antetokounmpo at the point early in his career, and that accelerated his development as a playmaker. The same could happen for Flagg.
Again, it’ll just take some time.
