The Mavericks tip off the regular season one month from today and they are coming off of what has been widely applauded as a successful offseason.
They addressed their most-glaring need – reliable perimeter shooting – with the addition of Klay Thompson. And while it always stings to lose players like Josh Green and Tim Hardaway Jr., you can’t have everything.
The salary cap makes sure of that.
But the Mavericks improved. Thompson alone would be a big win. He’s probably the biggest free-agent acquisition the organization has ever snagged.
Tack on Spencer Dinwiddie, Naji Marshall and Quentin Grimes and you have three more players who will have an impact in the rotation, if not starting some games during a long season.
Their arrival has turned the roster into a deep one, loaded with quality NBA players.
Who knows, the Mavericks may even be able to do something rare this season – like sight a unicorn or Bigfoot or get Luka Dončić more rest during garden-variety regular-season games.
Let’s hope one of those three happens.
But as strong as the roster appears, the Mavericks know that defending their Western Conference championship won’t be easy.
In fact, it’ll be harder than it was to win it last season.
Why? Because the competition in the West is as stiff as ever.
It would be easier to list the teams that can’t win the West than the ones that can. In addition to the Mavericks, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Denver all feel like anything less than reaching the NBA Finals this season will be a flop.
And then there’s a long list of teams that could break through, like Memphis (if healthy), New Orleans, Phoenix, Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio, Sacramento and Houston.
Plus, nobody ever wants to count out LeBron James and the Lakers.
That’s 13 teams and the prevailing theory is that you better get your licks in on Portland and Utah soon because they are on the rise, too.
Training camp opens Monday for the Mavericks with media day, then a flight to Las Vegas, where they will spend the rest of next week practicing and bonding.
But the bonding for this team already began over the summer. Many players got together in southern California for a stress-free weekend. And with the majority of the rotation players returning, the Mavericks already have a head start on developing chemistry. Veterans like Thompson and Dinwiddie know how to fit in quickly. So getting Marshall and Grimes up to speed will be a big part of camp
So what about the rest of the West? The Nuggets were arguably the biggest playoff disappointment in the 2024 playoffs. They were coming off a championship but got bounced in the second round by Minnesota.
So the Nuggets reloaded, somewhat. They brought in Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric, who bring some different tools to Denver’s work shed. They remain on the short list of contenders for the NBA crown.
As do Minnesota and OKC.
The Wolves feel like they were on the lip of the cup last season, when they beat the Nuggets and then lost to the Mavericks in five games in the West finals. They have a strong, veteran roster that now has had a taste of what basketball is like in a deep playoff run.
They added a couple of shooters, one old (Joe Ingles) and one young (Rob Dillingham). But mostly the Wolves are hoping a year of seasoning puts them in line to take the next step.
The Thunder, meanwhile, continues to build the best young roster in the league. And they added one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, Alex Caruso, to what already was one of the best defensive teams in the league.
Caruso might not have been brought in specifically to give the Thunder a better matchup with Kyrie Irving and/or Dončić. But it certainly had the feel of a transaction made with one goal in mind: to give the Thunder more defensive weapons against the Mavericks’ backcourt.
The interesting thing about the Mavericks’ three prime competitors in the West is that they play in the same division. They will meet each other four times, and all of those games should be entertaining.
The rest of the Western Conference is a crapshoot. You can find reasons to love any of the second-tier teams. But you can also find flaws.
Just remember, nobody went into the season last year expecting the Mavericks to rip into the NBA Finals. They got hot in the second half of the season and peaked at the right time. It can happen.
It should surprise nobody if one of the teams out of the Western Conference pack catches lightning in a bottle and makes a deep playoff run.
But can any of them take the crown away from the Mavericks?
They plan on making that a difficult task.
X: @ESefko
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