Dallas Mavericks 2022-23 Season Preview
How far can Luka Ball take the Mavs?
Welcome to the 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.
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Stats
Net Rating: +3.8 (7th)
Offensive Rating: 114.1 (12th)
Good
Luka & company takes care of the ball. Well, ok it wasn’t Luka - it was more of the rest of the Mavericks as Luka was one of the worst players on the team when it comes to turnover %. The Mavericks as a team finished 5th in the NBA in TOV%, and if Luka gets his turnovers down slightly - they could finish 1st.
Bad
No turnover teams usually means less attacking or probing chances, which also leads to not drawing tons of fouls to create free throw chances. The Mavericks ranked 17th in the NBA in FT Rate, something that should improve slightly with a full season of Dinwiddie.
Ugly
Offensive rebounding was almost nonexistent, with the Mavs choosing to go to more small ball and 5-out offense they combined that with little or no great offensive rebounders this is an area they struggled in. Outside of Powell, the Mavs didn’t really have any great offensive rebounders, adding McGee can help with this - but Wood will unfortunately not.
Defensive Rating: 110.3 (8th)
Good
Everything. That’s how you become a top-10 defense, everything is typically good and not necessarily elite. Not excelling in one area, the Mavs ranked 8th in eFG%, 9th in Defensive Rebounding and 10th in FT Rate - all very good rankings. The thing that stands out to me is their eFG%, because I would not consider many players to be high level defenders outside of Finney-Smith.
Ok
The Mavericks did not force turnovers, ranking 15th in the NBA but that is not too much of a concern. I think the reason the Mavericks shouldn’t care about improving this is because they are basically the slowest team in the NBA so creating transition opportunities is not a priority, so containing is perfect for their defense.
Bad
Although the Mavericks ranked very highly and not allowing teams to rebound back their misses, when they did their opponents scored at a high rate. The Mavericks ranked 28th in the NBA in putbacks points per play, and this was highlighted in the series vs the Warriors.
Film
Luka Ball 5 Out
The entire Mavericks offense surrounds one thing, especially this season, Luka Doncic’s insane scoring and playmaking ability. He is a one man offense, who can create in ISO, Pick & Roll, Post Ups, or any other way he wants. The Mavericks utilized this a lot by spacing the floor with 5-out spacing to maximize his creativity.
One benefit of this spacing is that it allows for easier driving lanes that flow into drive and kick advantages to keep the defense scrambling.
They combine this into basic actions like pindown, flares, ballscreens, and a variety of actions.
Ghost
A great action to get guards involved is to set ghost screens, faking a ballscreen to pick and pop to cause defensive breakdowns.
Flip
Another simple but effective action is to look for drive & flips, but unlike other dribble hand offs and a roller these usually end up with a relocate to the 3 point line.
Hunt Ballscreens
The main design for the Mavericks offense especially when it matters in the playoffs or in crunch time is to look for “Hunt” ballscreens.
Whenever the other team has a defensive liability, the Mavericks will put them in ballscreen defense to get a switch or create an advantage.
A way the Mavericks use this is to run “21/Pistol” action on the wing with the player they are trying to get switched. It is much harder to hedge or defend without switching defending this 21 action.
Spain
Spain pick and roll has been a staple of the Mavericks offense ever since Luka Doncic arrived. Setting a backscreen on the ballscreener adds another creative wrinkle that forces the defense to guard ballscreens differently and using Luka in this sometimes just feels unfair.
Horns Out Spain
A set the Mavericks use to disguise or setup Spain action is out of Horns, where the first cut is off a screen to the wing to force the defense to react.
Then the player in the corner cuts into the lane to become the backscreener in Spain action.
Wide Dribble Pin
When they are looking to get a shooter open, the Mavs will run a counter off the normal Wide Dribble action. After the player comes off the screen in the middle of the floor and hands it back to the point guard he cuts through the lane opposite to clear space.
Then the player who was the screener goes and sets a quick pindown for the player in the corner, setting up for easy scoring looks.
Delay Turn Chicago
I have broken down this set a ton on here, so I will link those breakdowns and keep it brief - this set is designed for Luka to come off to his right hand and is a good setup to allow him to read the defense.
If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!
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Outwork Yesterday.
Coach Pyper