Another anticipated NBA season starts in less than two months. And former NBA player Brendan Haywood steadfastly believes the Dallas Mavericks will be a
force — again — in the Western Conference during the 2024-25 campaign.
“When you talk about the best teams in the Western Conference, I have the Dallas Mavericks right there in the top three or four,” said Haywood, who works as an analyst for NBA TV. “You can put them in any order.
“(Oklahoma City) is probably going to be the number one team coming out (of the West). But then it’s probably, in any order, Dallas, Denver and Minnesota.”
The Mavs went 50-32 last year, then eliminated the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves in the first three rounds of the playoffs before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games in the NBA Finals. The presence of guards Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving along with the offseason acquisition of Klay Thompson – plus a full training camp with last season’s valuable midseason pickups, Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington – gives the Mavs plenty of star power.
“When you start talking about the best teams in the West, you need to mention the Mavericks because they have two of the better closers,” said Haywood of Dončić and 
Irving. “I thought they improved at the trade deadline and I thought they improved in the offseason when they got a guy like Klay Thompson, also.
“The favorite (to win the West) will probably be OKC just because they’re so young and they were able to get an all-NBA defender on the perimeter in the offseason (in Alex Caruso). They were already a good team, and their young guys were ascending, so OKC is probably the favorite.”
In the prism from which he analyzes the game, Haywood also likes the Mavs’ other top offseason acquisitions in guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Quentin Grimes, and forward Naji Marshall. He especially likes Dinwiddie, who played for the Mavs from 2022-23 and helped them reach the 2022 Western Conference Finals.
“I think all those guys can help in their own way,” Haywood told Mavs.com. “Dinwiddie, he was there before, and the Mavericks know him. I think that he can bring them some pop off the bench.
“Grimes is a very solid player as well.”
In addition, Haywood heaped praise upon Mavs general manager Nico Harrison for putting together a high-quality roster that can stack up against any team the NBA has to offer.
“Nico keeps making smart decision after smart decision on how to build this roster, and he’s landed quite well,” Haywood said. “He’s got your high-end guys, but then you need some
other guys that can play with those guys.
“And on nights when those guys are not playing, they can carry maybe a little bit of a bigger load.”
Haywood views the Mavs as a franchise that will win an NBA title within the next four years, if not this upcoming season. He believes the tea leaves appear to be pointed favorably in their direction.
“When you have Luka, you have Kyrie, you have great ownership, a great GM and a great head coach, you definitely have the pieces to win a title,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is, is Luka going to give me a little bit more? In the Finals (against the Celtics) they started highlighting certain things, and that’s the difference between winning and not winning. Are you in great shape? Are you competing defensively?
“You look at a team like Denver. They don’t ask (center Nikola Jokic) to be a great defender, but big fella you’ve got to compete defensively. Golden State, when they were winning, they didn’t ask Stephen Curry to go out there and lock people down. That’s why they had Klay Thompson and (Andre) Iguodala and Draymond (Green). You’ve got to be in the right spot, you’ve got to compete, you’ve got to get back defensively, you’ve got to be where you’re supposed to be. Those are the little things that I’m looking for. If Luka just makes sure that he’s in tip-top shape and does the little things as far as giving extra effort defensively, I definitely think the Mavericks can win a championship, because he’s one of the best and most offensive skilled players I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Haywood noted that the combination of Dončić and Irving is one of the top backcourt duos in the NBA. But when things didn’t click right away for them after the Mavs acquired Irving in a trade 2023, some critics were scratching their head.
However, last season Dončić led the NBA in scoring (33.9) and also averaged 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 1.4 steals, while Irving averaged 25.6 points, five rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals, and the Mavs rode their magical productivity all the way to the NBA Finals.
“I think it’s definitely working,” Haywood said. “A lot of people were really critical of it. We live in a microwave society, and people want things to work right away. But you’ve got to understand there’s an adjustment period. When you have two ball-dominant guys like that and they’re coming together, those guys need a full training camp. Those guys need a full offseason. They need a full preseason together to start figuring things out.
“And you could see all of that this year. So, I wasn’t surprised that things really picked up for this crew because they’re both great individual talents and now they’re pairing their talents together.”
The backup center to Tyson Chandler when the Mavs captured the 2011 NBA title over LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat, Haywood also is fond of the way centers Dereck Lively II and Gafford paired their talents together last season.
“I loved it, I loved it,” he said. “It reminded me of myself and Tyson Chandler. Both of those guys are way better than I ever was. I love the fact that they bring a rim presence on both ends of the court, and Dallas didn’t have that before.
“There were some years where you could run right down the lane and score whenever you wanted to. There was nobody that was going to block your shot. And then there was nobody that was a lob threat that made the defense tilt toward the rim, which made things hard for them offensively at times.”
The stellar performances by Gafford and Lively in the middle has indeed been a game-changer for the Mavs, according to Haywood, who played in the NBA from 2001-15.
“You look at what Gafford and Lively are able to do, if you’re a second late you know Luka is going to throw the lob, Kyrie is going to throw the lob, and they’re going to finish with authority,” he said. “And what I really love about them is both guys can block shots, and they can switch in the pick-and-roll. That is key.
“I was watching Lively switch and move his feet in the pick-and-roll and I was so impressed. When he would get on an island with some of the elite guards in this league, he would move his feet and make the shot very tough on those guys. To have two big men that are lob threats and can play multiple pick-and-roll coverages . . . I think they’ve got two really good ones.”
In dissecting the Celtics’ five-game win over the Mavs in the Finals, there’s one thing that stood out to Haywood that could be corrected thanks to the offseason acquisition of Thompson.
“Boston did a really good job of guarding Kyrie and Luka and forcing certain guys to get certain shots in certain areas,” he said. “They took away the corner threes from Dallas. That was huge. They were willing to give up the top of the key threes, and you can’t do that with Klay Thompson.
“No disrespect to anybody that played on that team last year, but if Klay Thompson is getting those shots he’s going to hit those shots at a higher rate.”
Thompson averaged 17.9 points and shot 38.7 percent from three-point range last year in what was considered an off-year by his lofty standards.
“That’s when you know you’re a great player and when you know you’re an elite player — when a bad year for you is a really, really good year for everybody else,” Haywood said. “Klay Thompson is a guy that normally shoots 41 percent from three for his career, so when he only shoots 38 percent from three, people are talking like he can’t play anymore.
“We know Klay Thompson can still play. He didn’t have the regular Klay Thompson year, but guess what? To the Dallas Mavericks he doesn’t have to be Golden State championship in his prime Klay Thompson. That 17-18 (points) and 38 percent from three, that’s all they need.”
And the fact that Thompson decided to come and play for the Mavs when he had an opportunity to play for the Los Angeles Lakers spoke volumes to Haywood.
“It just tells you how much people respect what Luka is in this league,” Haywood said. “Guys want to get their money and they want to win, and when you’re playing with Luka you see an opportunity to do both.
“(Dončić is) going to make your job easier because he’s going to do all the heavy lifting. And then at the same time he’s one of the top five players in the league right now. So, you know you have a great chance to win as long as he’s healthy.”
Haywood said that if he was starting a franchise today, he would choose Jokic with the first pick, “Then I’ll be splitting hairs between Luka and (OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) next. That’s it. That’s the list for me.”
As for the day the Mavs dispatched the Miami Heat and won the 2011 NBA championship in six games, Haywood said: “It’s still one of the better days of my life. Winning the championship, it was an incredible moment because I was never sure if I was ever going to win one.
“Being in DC (and playing for the Washington Wizards from 2001-10 before joining the Mavs), we were so far away from being championship contenders. And winning one, it felt great in that moment of ‘I’m a champion. No one can ever take this away from me. All of my hard work as a basketball player went into being this right now. This is the dream.’ You dream about being on that stage. We had a special group.”
And Haywood believes the 2024-25 edition of the Mavs also has the makings of being a special group.
“I really like the way the Mavericks’ roster is coming together,” he said. “That’s why I have them as one of the top four teams in the Western Conference.”
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