Dallas Mavericks: Interior Defense Needs Work

The Dallas Mavericks are again struggling with defense around the basket and it is taking a toll on the team.

Throughout the first few games of the 2015-16 season, the Dallas Mavericks have shown solid defense in places such as the three-point line. Players like Devin Harris and newly signed guard Wesley Matthews are really impressing early on and have helped the team contain some of the more dangerous guards in the league like Eric Bledsoe, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant and Kemba Walker.

However, there is one major flaw with their defensive plan so far: they have had no answer for elite big men in the league. The following stat lines from the first few games of the season represent the Mavs’ inability to defend the paint:

Blake Griffin: 26 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists
Julius Randle: 22 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals
Luis Scola: 19 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals
Marvin Williams: 17 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists
Al Jefferson: 31 points, 9 rebounds

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It’s obvious that the Mavs have a major issue with interior defense. Out of the players mentioned above, the Mavs only won against the Lakers when Julius Randle logged the first 20-point game of his career, so whenever centers or power forwards have good nights against the Mavs, it’s not a good sign of things to come.

Obviously there’s not much you can do against players such as Griffin and Jefferson but you can stop them from getting wide-open shots, which is something the Mavs failed to do in their games against the Los Angeles Clippers and Charlotte Hornets.

At times, the opponent would miss a shot and the Mavs would fail to cover, leaving Griffin or Jefferson open for a layup or dunk. One reason why this is happening is that the Mavs just don’t really have any guys who can guard elite players like Tyson Chandler could in 2014-15.

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Zaza Pachulia is a very tough center who loves contact and loves to make it difficult for his opponents to score but he isn’t the fastest player in the league and the younger guys are able to capitalize on that. Another reason is his size. Although he is 6’11”, he isn’t as long as many modern-day centers.

The Mavs also struggle with power forward and center pairings. At times during games, you will see Charlie Villanueva and Dirk Nowitzki out there as the only two big men on the court. That creates minimal difficulty for opposing offenses, especially if they have an elite player on the floor.

One solution to this issue could come in the form of JaVale McGee. The 7’0″ big man, who signed with the Mavs back in the summer, is still out due to a leg injury that he suffered last season. Besides that, he has been working hard with the Mavs’ training staff in order to get back in shape since playing only 23 games in 2014-15 and eventually being waived by the 76ers last March.

Though McGee is certainly not an instant solution to the problem, he will help the Mavs improve their defense in the paint. His size and long arms is good for frustrating playmakers, and if he can get back to the way he was with the Denver Nuggets, he would be a huge gain for a Mavs team that has struggled to find a solid center not named “Tyson Chandler.”

The only issue with all of that is the fact that McGee is still a ways off from returning. The work he’s been doing with the Mavs seems to be very extensive and in-depth, meaning that he likely won’t be back in action until December at the absolute earliest.

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All the Mavs can do right now is hope that their 19th-ranked offense drastically improves so that their defensive woes aren’t magnified quite as much. With Pachulia being the only true center that gets playing time, the Mavs will have to either tighten up or look for other options to make sure their bad defense inside doesn’t cost them meaningful games in the West.

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