Dallas Mavericks: Dallas' Wing Players Key To Postseason Appearance

With Dirk Nowitzki another year older and questionable depth, the Dallas Mavericks will need pristine production from their wing players.

Last offseason, the Dallas Mavericks saw their offseason crumble after DeAndre Jordan signed, then reneged on the agreement, returning to the Clippers. This season, there was no big disappointment.

The Mavericks, usually star chasers, were dormant in free agency, waiting for the first few days to die down before picking up some of the scraps.

The result was Dallas being the team to sign Harrison Barnes to the max contract we all expected, Seth Curry on a nice, cheap contract and traded nothing for Andrew Bogut.

Dallas made some interesting moves in the undrafted free agent market, signing Dorian Finney-Smith, but other than that, the Mavericks brought back Dirk and didn’t snag the star they wanted to go along with him.

It’ll be placed on the altar of Dallas’ wing rotation to help Nowitzki bring this team back to the playoffs. Nowitzki and head coach Rick Carlisle will be asked to do their magic for what seems like the tenth year in a row, taking a team with solid, but not great talent, to a solid season.

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The trio of Barnes,

Justin Anderson

, and

Wesley Matthews

will be asked to do a bit more if that’s the case.

Last season, Wes Matthews was coming off a torn Achilles injury. That didn’t stop him from playing 78 games for the Mavericks last season and another five playoff games on top of that. The bad thing?

Matthews shot 38 percent from the floor and his worst true shooting season for his career. Matthews also wasn’t the same on the defensive end.

There weren’t many positives in his overall numbers, but his numbers jumped after the all-star break, going from 34 percent from three before the break, to 38 percent after. His plus-minus jumped from plus-1.4 early in the season to plus-3.2 after the break.

Another season away from the injury could help his game, but as we’ve seen with this injury in the past, you never fully get it back.

While Mavs fans hope Matthews can buck the trend, they have to be also hoping that Harrison Barnes has a bit more left in the tank.

The numbers on the surface look good – Barnes averaged 11.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and shot 38 percent from three.

Over the last two seasons, Barnes has been an efficient scorer and his ability to play both forward spots gave Golden State a power forward in their small-ball death lineup over the last two seasons.

However, when you watch the games, you see a much different story.

Over the last two seasons, Barnes has been rather invisible in big playoff games, his offense has been with him as the fourth option on offense, he’s athletic, but doesn’t know how to use it and most of his offense has been created for him and they’ve been wide open.

Through his four seasons with Golden State, you never got the sense that he could dribble a basketball, which is not good.

With no Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson or Draymond Green to share the basketball court with, Harrison Barnes should get a bit more responsibility on the offensive end. It could result in an increase in scoring, and thus, his value.

Or, with more contested shots and more focus on him on that end, Barnes could revert back to an ancillary role on the offense.

That works under a rookie contract in Golden State with three of the top 20 players in the league around you. That doesn’t work making $94 million with J.J. Barea and Dwight Powell around you.

Barnes and Matthews, two potential starters for next season’s team, will have to produce. However, the Dallas Mavericks could take a nice step forward and improve with the sophomore jump from Justin Anderson.

With the 21st pick in the 2015 NBA draft, the Mavericks took a chance on an experienced college forward from Virginia and there were rough points. Anderson didn’t jump into the lineup and flash right away, averaging 55 games and nine starts as a rookie.

Finishing with 3.8 points and 2.4 rebounds, Anderson didn’t look like anything special in his first year.

On the bright side, the tools flashed. With a wingspan near seven feet, Anderson can move around and defend several positions on the floor. Anderson is good above the rim, too, finishing last season with 25 blocks.

In short spurts throughout the season and playoffs, Anderson looked like someone who can become a solid defender.

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The bigger issue is his long-range shooting. Anderson finished with 45 percent shooting from three in 104 attempts as a junior in Virginia. As a rookie for the Mavericks, Anderson shot just 26 percent from three.

The 26 percent fell in line with his freshman and sophomore seasons, where Anderson shot under 31 percent from beyond the arc. His catch-and-shoot numbers weren’t great — 24 percent from three — so for now, it’s his shooting in question.

For the Dallas Mavericks, these three are important. The Mavericks have solid options in the frontcourt with Dirk Nowitzki and Andrew Bogut at power forward and center. The point guard position has several options to rotate through with Barea, Curry, Deron Williams and Devin Harris.

In a league where small-ball rules and wing players patrolling positions two through four, the trio of Anderson, Barnes and Matthews become even more important.

The Dallas Mavericks enter next season with the same question as last season – questionable depth and needing a bit more from unproven players.

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To hold off the upstart teams like Minnesota and Denver, the Mavericks are going to need players to step up and improve their play next season and the trio of Anderson, Barnes and Matthews seems like the ideal group.

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Dallas Mavericks: Wing Players Key To Postseason Appearance

By Quentin Haynes | Aug 29, 2016

With Dirk Nowitzki another year older and questionable depth, the Dallas Mavericks will need pristine production from their wing players.

More from Hoops Habit