2011-12 Dallas Mavericks Predictions
Written by Jack Jones
The Dallas Mavericks are coming off their first NBA Championship in franchise history. The Mavericks would post a 57-25 record during the regular season to earn the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. They swept the Los Angeles Lakers and beat the Miami Heat in six games in the NBA Finals en route to being crowned champions.
Dallas brings back several of their key playoffs from that title team. Dirk Nowitzki, the NBA Finals MVP, averaged 23.0 points and 7.0 rebounds last season. He will start alongside Jason Kidd, who finally won his first championship. The 38-year-old averaged 7.9 points and 8.2 assists for Dallas last year.
It appears as if the Mavericks will be starting three new players with Kidd and Nowitzki. Dallas traded for PF Lamar Odom, who averaged 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds last year for the Los Angeles Lakers. They also signed SG Vince Carter from the Phoenix Suns in free agency. Carter averaged 14.0 points a year ago and will turn 35 in January.
Brendan Haywood will not start at center in place of Tyson Chandler, who was traded to the New York Knicks this offseason. Chandler was arguably as big a part of their championship run as anyone last season. He averaged 10.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. Haywood is a pretty big downgrade at the center position after averaging 4.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks last year.
The Mavericks also lost J.J. Barea (9.5 points, 3.5 assists) who was an instant spark off the bench for them last year at point guard. Also gone is SF Caron Butler, who left to join the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency. Butler isn’t a huge loss considering he only played in 29 games last year due to injury. However, he did average 15.0 points and 4.1 rebounds before getting hurt.
SG Jason Terry (15.8 points, 4.1 assists) remains one of the best sixth men in the league. Also coming off the bench to help the Mavericks will be SF Shawn Marion (12.5 points, 6.9 rebounds), PG Rodrique Beaubois (8.4 points), PG Delonte West, C Ian Mahinmi, and PF Brian Cardinal. This team has a lot of depth at every position other than center.
Western Conference Prediction: 1st Southwest Division – The Mavericks still have the talent to make another run at a championship. I believe this is the best team in the Southwest and they should overtake the San Antonio Spurs for the top spot in this division in 2011-12. I do believe this team has downgraded themselves just a little this offseason. The losses of Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea and Caron Butler are huge.
While I like the addition of Lamar Odom, I do not like that they brought Vince Carter on board. He has never been a team player, and that‘s a big reason why most of the teams he‘s played on throughout his career have been losing ones. I don’t believe the additions of Odom and Carter are going to be enough to make up for what they are losing. This is one of the best teams in the West, but they will not repeat as conference champs.
See how expert handicapper Jack Jones feels about the rest of the NBA with his 2011-12 season predictions article.
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