Player of the Week: Tyson Chandler

It didn’t take long for Tyson Chandler to make his presence known.

The center has dominated for practically the entire season, but this week he turned it up even further. Chandler averaged a double-double this week, including a 25-board gem against his former team, the New York Knicks. It was just the sixth time a Maverick has ever recorded that many rebounds and the second since the end of the 1995-96 season. For all the worries that some around the country expressed regarding Chandler’s injuries last season, there hasn’t been much for Dallas fans to fret about this season with the seven-footer’s play. Chandler has been the best defender and best rebounder on the team in all 18 games. In other words, he’s just doing his job.

Chandler’s net rating this week in particular stood out. Normally, Dirk Nowitzki and Brandan Wright are among the team leaders in net rating. However, those two were shockingly toward the bottom of the pack this week, while the two Chandlers — Tyson and Parsons — topped the list. The Dallas starters did work this week. The best thing about this team is that the bench can carry the team for very long stretches, but the starters definitely can, too. Dallas rolls 12-13 deep almost every night, and the Mavs have quality from top to bottom. Perhaps a more effective way of measuring a player’s value is by looking at how his team did without him. In the four games last week, the Mavs were 33.8 points per 100 possessions worse than their opponents when Chandler did not play. How’s that for impact? Last week, at least, the team performed miles better offensively and defensively when its starting center took the floor.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean Chandler is a one-man team or that his teammates let him down this past week. The numbers do speak for themselves, though, and rather loudly. Chandler is healthy, motivated, and comfortable. That’s a dangerous combination for a player capable of affecting the game in all areas the way Tyson can.

STAT OF THE WEEK – 98.12

The Mavs’ pace averaged out at 98.12 in the four games they played last week, a huge increase over their typical mark. Pace is the number of possessions a for team per 48 minutes. You’ll notice many newer basketball stats are “X per 100 possessions.” Almost every team plays fewer than 100 in a typical game, but that number is just a round, even way to account for style of play. For example, slow-it-down teams like the Grizzlies, Pacers, Knicks, and and Hornets are all toward the bottom in pace, while run-and-gun teams such as Golden State, Phoenix, and Denver are toward the very top.

Last season’s Dallas squad was near the bottom in possessions per game, and the same held true through the first dozen or so games this season. However, last week the Mavs averaged more than 98 possessions per game, more than two per game above the club’s season average and ninth-most in the NBA. The Mavs now rank ninth in total pace for the entire season. It certainly helps that games against Toronto and Philly, two fast-paced teams, helped to cancel out the grinding battles versus New York and Indiana from earlier in the week. The Mavs averaged 99.89 possessions in the Raptors and 76ers contests, which would be the fourth-highest pace in all of basketball were it the team’s season mark.

Dallas has shown that it is fully capable of adjusting to its opponent’s preferred style of play, whatever that might be. The Mavs don’t necessarily need to impose their will on the game because their roster is so versatile enough to win in several different ways. For example, Monta Ellis and Chandler Parsons are capable of speeding up the tempo, while players like JJ Barea and Dirk Nowitzki can slow it down with multiple pick-and-rolls to milk the shot clock. Dallas attacks early in the shot clock and the Mavs also wait until the final second at times to find shots. Dallas will take whatever the defense gives, and not many teams can make the same claim. Last week the defenses allowed early shots, so the Mavs took early shots — and it worked out just fine.