Dallas Mavericks look to do some damage with their own star duo

Predictions

The Dallas Mavericks in 2019-20 will be an unfinished product, a team capable of having great nights and terrible ones.

They will return to respectability after losing 49, 58 and 49 games respectively over the last three seasons, but their 40-42 record will land them ninth in the West and out of the playoffs for a fourth straight year.

There will, however, be lots of hope for the future as the tandem of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis gets better and more comfortable as the year goes on and the Mavericks go into next summer with enough cap space from the expiring deal of Courtney Lee to add the role players needed to take the next step.

Lee is actually a contract the Mavericks could look to move before the trade deadline if he’s not contributing much beyond eating a $12.8 million hole in the cap space, but Dallas’ flexibility is limited a bit this season by being hard capped at the luxury tax apron because of the Delon Wright sign-and-trade.

How far the Mavericks end up going this season will depend an awful lot on those role players being able to advance themselves into being consistent contributors, either as secondary options with the first unit or as effective pieces on the second.

That makes it an important season for developing players such as Maxi Kleber, Ryan Broekhoff, Jalen Brunson and Justin Jackson, who have the ability to play themselves into — or out of — the Mavericks’ longer-term plans.