Welcome back to Moneyball Mailbag! Here we will answer your questions relating to anything and everything Dallas Mavericks. Questions are gathered from our very own Feed, as well as social media and face-to-face.
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With Media Day in the books, we have a few items to pique our curiosity.
For questions of a similar nature asked by multiple people, we’ve simply distilled it down to a single iteration to best cover what may be on the minds of most readers. Also, some questions are edited for proper context. Let’s get to the questions!
“Is there any realistic chance Naji Marshall can shoot 45% from beyond the arc this season?”
If this question isn’t on your mind, it should be. If you peeped my player preview piece on Marshall from Monday, you know that I listed his best case scenario as being the third best player on the team and his season goal as improving his three-point percentage. I wrote that piece prior to Media Day, so I was thrilled to see his plans about shooting 45% from downtown.
To answer the question directly: no, I don’t think that’s realistic. Exactly two qualifying players accomplished that level of efficiency last season. Luke Kennard at 47.8% and Bobby Portis at 45.6%. Marshall wasn’t in the top 150 players in the category, as he shot a woeful 29.1% from deep. For his career, Marshall shoots exactly 30.0% with his best season clocking in at 38.7%. If he jumped to 45% this season, it would be one of the most incredible improvement you could imagine.
None of that is really the point, however. The point is that Marshall knows he needs to improve this area of the game, and he’s aiming for the next galaxy while hoping to land on the moon. That’s a great start and a great sign that he focused on the right things this offseason. If he can pull himself back to his career high 38.7%, we should all be throwing a party.
“Are the two preseason games in Macao going to be televised on channel 29?”
-Reh
The Mavericks are set to take on the Houston Rockets on Friday October 9 and Sunday October 11 in Macao, China. As of this writing, the official TV broadcast is “TBD,” which is a bit unfortunate for those wanting their first taste of Mavericks’ basketball since Summer League wrapped in July. What we do know is that the October 9 game will take place at 7:00am Dallas time, and the October 11 game will be at 5:00am.
“What will be the most important things to see from the Mavs during their first 10 games of the regular season?”
-DCON
My top three most important things for the first 10 games are health, cohesion and .500 basketball.
The Mavericks have had more than their fair share of injuries over the past two seasons and can’t afford any setbacks out of the gate. This is especially true with Kyrie Irving’s return. He is critical to the success of the team and his pairing with Cooper Flagg is something we’ve all been waiting to see. Which leads us to the cohesion factor.
There are some outright new faces on the team, but also a ‘new old’ face or two with key players like Irving reentering the fold. They need to maximize training camp so everyone knows their roles and tendencies and the team isn’t figuring things out as they go (as was the case last year). Fortunately, it seems like Irving and Flagg already have some chemistry building from offseason work.
As for playing .500 basketball, that doesn’t sound too ambitious, but a look at the schedule indicates splitting wins and losses over the first 10 games is probably a good outcome. The Mavs play six games at home and four on the road over the first 10 games, however they play three games in the first four nights of the season and will play the Oklahoma City Thunder once and the San Antonio Spurs twice in that span. They also play the Houston Rockets twice, Indiana Pacers and the rebuilt Miami Heat. If a new team with returning players can get five wins in that mix, that’s a pretty good start.
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