Challenge for Mavericks is to get better, starting with training camp

Ten to 15 percent better.

Those were the offseason words to live by for the Mavericks.

And ambitious words they are for a team that overachieved a season ago and reached the NBA Finals. But that mission was what every member of the organization was charged with by general manager Nico Harrison.

Get 10 to 15 percent better.

Training camp officially opens with Monday’s media day obligations for players and staff. Then, it’s a flight to Las Vegas where the Mavericks will begin practices on Tuesday at the UNLV campus.

This will be a chance for governor Patrick Dumont to host his team in his home city. But it will be strictly a work trip for coach Jason Kidd, his staff and players.

And after you’ve had a season as successful as 2023-24 was for the Mavericks, improvement isn’t always easy to measure.

For instance, it may come in the form of getting Luka Dončić three or four minutes of extra rest from the career-high 37.5 minutes per game he played last season. By the way, that would represent a 10 to 15 percent reduction (see what we did there?). And by the way, even one or two minutes less would be a terrific reduction on regular-season wear and tear on the superstar point guard.

Perhaps Dereck Lively comes back far beyond 10 or 15 percent better. After his productive rookie season, the sky seems limitless for him.

Maybe Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving become the best supporting actors since Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. It’s a trendy opinion to say that Thompson at age 34 and with two serious injuries in the past five seasons is a risk and wonder whether he has reached the end of the line. The skeptics also wonder how much longer Irving will be able to keep his wizardry with the basketball going. If they show all the doubters wrong, it’s going to be a very enjoyable 2024-25 season. And, of course, ensuring Irving’s health (and everybody else’s) in training camp is a priority. Irving had surgery on his left hand, which sustained a broken bone in July.

Or it may come with a breakthrough season for one of the younger players – Jaden Hardy, A.J. Lawson, O-Max Prosper or Quentin Grimes.

The point is that the 10 to 15 percent could come from just about anywhere. And it won’t necessarily be in the standings.

But the Mavericks found out last season just making the postseason is enough reward for any regular season because once you get to the playoffs, anything can happen.

The best thing about this team might be the possibility that it can survive and even prosper in many incarnations. The depth of the team almost certainly will be a major strength.

And, as those of us old enough to remember can attest, once you have talent, it all comes down to chemistry. Dirk Nowitzki had a phone book worth of teammates before he found the right combination and got to the NBA Finals in 2006, then had to watch the team retool and not get back to the Finals until 2011, when they won it all.

That 2006 season was Dirk’s eighth.

Last season was Luka’s sixth.

The Mavericks are intent on it not taking another five years to get back to the Finals or put a ring on Dončić’s finger. But he’s reached the point in his career where we start comparing his road to Nowitzki’s.

As Denver coach Michael Malone said on Thursday at the Nuggets’ media day, “you have a championship window. And not every team has a championship window.”

The Mavericks have one that opened last year and figures to extend several seasons, assuming forces of nature don’t sabotage them.

Now it’s time to get 10 to 15 percent better and finish the job that was started last season.

X: @ESefko

 

Here is the Mavericks’ 2024-25 training camp roster:

Number, player            Position     Ht.     Wt.   Age  College/country  Exp.

26 Spencer Dinwiddie         G       6-5     215    31    Colorado        10

77 Luka Dončić                    G       6-7     230    25    Slovenia          6

20 Kessler Edwards*           F       6-8     215    25    Pepperdine       3

0 Danté Exum                      G      6-5     214    29    Australia          7

21 Daniel Gafford                C      6-10   234    25    Arkansas          5

00 Jazian Gortman             G       6-2    184    21    G-League        R

5 Quentin Grimes               G       6-5    210   24    Houston           3

1 Jaden Hardy                     G       6-4    198   22    G-League        2

11 Kyrie Irving                     G      6-2     191   31    Duke               13

42 Maxi Kleber                   F/C   6-10    240   32    Germany          7

9 AJ Lawson                         G     6-6     185   24     S Carolina        2

2 Dereck Lively II                C     7-1     234   20     Duke               1

13 Naji Marshall                    F     6-7     225   26     Xavier             4

3 Emanuel Miller                   F     6-7     215   24     TCU               R

88 Markieff Morris              F/C   6-9     245   35     Kansas           13

7 Dwight Powell                    C    6-10   240   33     Stanford         10

8 Olivier-Maxence Prosper  F    6-8     215   22     Marquette        1

33 Jamarion Sharp                C    7-5     235   23     Mississippi      R

31 Klay Thompson              G/F  6-6      220   35    Wash. State     11

25 P.J. Washington Jr.          F    6-7      230   26     Kentucky         5

10 Brandon Williams*          G    6-1      190   24     Arizona           2

*–Two-way contract

Staff:

Head Coach: Jason Kidd (California).

Assistant Coaches: Sean Sweeney (St. Thomas), Jared Dudley (Boston College), Alex Jensen (Utah), Eric Hughes (Cal State East Bay), Darrell Armstrong (Fayetteville State), Josh Broghamer (Northern Iowa), Marko Milić (Slovenia), God Shammgod (Providence), Keith Veney (Marshall).

Head Athletic Trainer: Dionne Calhoun (San Diego State).