I’m having trouble figuring out whether or not the Mavericks are a good team. They’ve won seven of their last nine games after losing seven of their first nine games to open up the season, and they have many of the components of a good team:
-Starter-quality backup PG (Barea)
-Emerging young stud (Doncic)
-Hyper-efficient dunk machine and rebound vacuum (Jordan)
-Veteran HOFer who doesn’t play (Nowitzki)
-Onetime best high-school player in the country (Barnes)
-Guy who likes to fight (Mejri)
The only thing they’re really missing is a legit star who’s a star right now and isn’t just projected to be one (Doncic again). I say “only”, but those kinds of players are tough to find and when you do find them, they’re not going to want to sign with the Mavs in free agency, so you have to trade for them.
They missed out on the chance for Jimmy Butler, but I totally bet they could pry Chandler Parsons away from the Grizzlies and bring him back home. I don’t know if Parsons is a star anymore these days but he’s definitely getting paid like one so it’s close enough, right?