Dallas Mavericks: Defensive Identity Starting To Show
Comparing defense with the Dallas Mavericks is impossible.
It’s never been a consistent staple in Dallas. Whenever comparisons are needed, referring back to 2011 is always the way to go, when the Mavericks pushed their defensive presence all the way to the championship that never gets old talking about.
But look back to the last season and a quarter with this Dallas team. Defense wasn’t a strong suit. The offense was amazing, though.
It was the offense that carried Dallas to a near upset of the San Antonio Spurs in last season’s playoffs. It was offense that got the Mavericks off to the hot start to this season.
But it was also defense that was their demise, which is why Dallas (here we go, again, right?) made the trade for Rajon Rondo.
It’s no coincidence that Rondo has made this team better defensively. No matter how much he jokes (or maybe not) that he hasn’t played defense in a couple of years, Rondo makes this team better in every facet defensively. In the last nine games, Dallas has allowed opponents to shoot a mere 42 percent.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
If you thought that was unfathomable, then you haven’t seen the 32 percent 3-point shooting. Remember earlier in the year that was hovering around 43-44 percent? That has gone down in the last nine games since the trade.
Before Rondo came along, Dallas was 20th in defensive efficiency. Now they’re in the top 10. You can’t make this stuff up by accident. It becomes even more clear that, if you have an elite point guard in the Western Conference, you’re going to be tough to beat. It also helps to have a defensive-minded center behind you just in case.
But, surely it can’t take just two defensive-minded players to change the culture within a team. OK, maybe it happened in 2011 with Tyson Chandler to an extent, but there were a lot of defenders on that team who did their part on the perimeter.
Rondo is doing his part near the 3-point line against the likes of some great point guards, but this is just absurd when you look at who is on this roster that’s playing outstanding defense. There are the likes of Richard Jefferson, Greg Smith, J.J. Barea, Devin Harris and Charlie Villanueva. All of them, at some point, have played great defense which has sparked the team.
Stats may lie to an extent, but not what it comes to defense and the impact it has made. Your defense can surely make a difference when one or two people play it at a high level. The same narrative can be said for Dallas’ passing and sharing of the basketball, and how Dallas has averaged 23 assists per game as a team in the last nine games.
Just look at Monday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets. Now, albeit, the Nets aren’t that great. They’ve played a lot better, ironically, in the last week and a half without Deron Williams in the lineup, but they’re just not that great right now.
Dallas gave up 35 first quarter points and let the Nets shoot 61.5 percent from the floor. Keep in mind, Brooklyn scored 88 points in Dallas’ overtime win.
- 2nd quarter – Brooklyn shot 4-of-19
- 3rd quarter – Brooklyn shot 6-of-18
- 4th quarter – Brooklyn shot 6-of-17
- Overtime – Brooklyn shot 1-of-4
That would be a total of 17 made shots in 41 minutes. That’s not by accident.
The Dallas team before the Rondo trade would have not won this game, not even close. Brooklyn would’ve scored 110 points and it wouldn’t have surprised anyone. But this is, what I like to call the Rondo Effect. The Rondo Effect is taking over this team in a great way. Look, I even have a #RondoEffect for you to use whenever you feel like it.
Again, I know it’s Brooklyn, but when a team shoots 3-of-25 from 3-point range, something has to be going right for the Mavericks. It’s not a mistake that the likes of Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving and John Wall have all struggled against Dallas.
The sample size is still way too early to predict anything reasonable for this Dallas team, just because the West is stacked beyond reasonable doubt. But seven games in, this team looks too tough to beat and can contend with any team in the NBA.
The Mavericks already had the offense. Now add a defensive identity into the mix, and it’s starting to look like 2011 all over again.