Dallas Mavericks: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18 season

Weakness No. 1: Limited depth on the interior

The Dallas Mavericks are a limited team on the interior. The signing of Nerlens Noel gives them a solid center option, but after him, depth looks like it could be an issue.

Don’t get me wrong, Noel and Nowitzki are solid bigs to have. However, Nowitzki is 39 years old and plays outside-in on offense. Noel hasn’t played more than 30 minutes per game (starter minutes) since his rookie year in the NBA.

He’s been on-and-off the injured list in his short time in the NBA. At backup, there’s potentially Salah Mejri or Dwight Powell. Mejri averaged 12.4 minutes per game last season for the Mavericks, averaging 2.9 points and 4.2 rebounds. So while he’s an answer on the rebounding front, he’s more of a liability on the interior.

Powell averaged 6.7 points, 4.0 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per game, appearing in 77 games for Dallas in 2016-17. Both serve as serviceable backups, but what if Noel or Nowitzki goes down with injury?

The Mavericks will need to find a solid rotation on the interior to work with if they want to avoid last season’s debacle. Fans could see Harrison Barnes play the power forward some, as mentioned earlier.

A few players to look out for are Dorian Finney-Smith and P.J. Dozier. Finney-Smith is entering his second season in the NBA after going undrafted in the 2016 NBA Draft. He averaged 4.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per game for Dallas in 2016-17. He’s got a Barnes-like build and appeared in 81 games last season.

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Dozier is entering his rookie season after going undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft. He entered his name in the draft early after averaging 13.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game for the South Carolina Gamecocks last year. Although he’s listed as a guard, at 6’7″ and 201 pounds, he could find himself in the lineup at some point in 2017-18.