The NBA’s Biggest Wildcard: Luka Doncic and The Dallas Mavericks

The NBA’s Biggest Wildcard: Luka Doncic and The Dallas Mavericks

One reason as to while LCA donic has become one of the most unguardable players in the NBA is the fact that it’s just hard for Defenders to guess what he’s going to do next when he has the ball in his hands and ironically though the Dallas Maverick’s regular season so

Far has been just as unpredictable well Dallas actually started out quite strong winning eight of their first 10 games before they actually experienced an equal balance of win streaks and losing skids which eventually put them as the eight- seated team in the western conference with a 29 and 23 record by

The trade deadline but then a seven game win streak in February marked by the trade Acquisitions of Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington actually highlighted a Mavs team that started to demand attention only for Dallas to lose five of their next six games well sure since the trade deadline the Mavs have sported

A really solid 11 and six win loss record but still there’s no doubt that this team’s trajectory this season has been quite the roller coaster ride however it’s worth noting that a lot of the M’s inconsistency has not necessarily been because of bad play but has mostly stemmed from waves of

Injuries to key players five members of the team’s rotation including second star Kyrie Irving Electric rookie Derek Lively athletic Wing Josh Green two-way stretch big maxic kba and xfactor Dante exm have all missed significant chunks of time during various points of the Season which has led coach Jason kid to

Shuffle his deck as much as any coach in the NBA as up to this point the Mavs have had 32 different starting lineups this season which is the third most in the entire league League only behind seller dwelling teams like Memphis and Portland the Mavs rotations have been so

Inconsistent to the point that the teams most frequently used starting lineup this season still features Grant Williams who the team actually traded a month ago even the fiveman lineup That Coach Jason kid told reporters on Christmas that he wanted to start when everyone got healthy which includes Luca

Kyrie Derek Lively Dante exom and dck Jones have only played a grand total of 28 minutes in seven games together all season but going beyond all those things this is still a different kind of Dallas team than we’ve seen the past couple of seasons and I think the key here is that

When healthy there are enough reasons to believe that this roster can make a really deep run in the postseason so what’s good everyone it’s real balls here and in this video let’s look into the different factors which makes the Dallas Mavericks the biggest wild card contenders in the NBA let’s get to It first of all the reason why the Mavs are still in solid playoff position right now amid all the injuries of course is Luca donic Luca has appeared in all but nine games this season while playing 37.4 minutes per game which is the third most minutes played in the NBA

This season only behind deard de rosan and Mikel Bridges and Luc has been doing that while also playing at a level that few players in history has ever reached looking at it donic currently ranked second in the NBA in scoring while shooting 37.6% from deep and almost 79%

From the free throw line which are both career highs unsurprisingly Luca also currently ranks third in both assists per game and points created off assist and considering how many of his best passes wind up resulting in misses that number actually undersells how remarkable Luca’s playmaking has

Actually been and to top it all off by the Reckoning of a number of publicly available Advanced statistics such as the estimated plus minus bucks plus minus NP donic also currently ranks as either the second third or the fourth best player in the NBA this season donic

Has been the driving force behind a Dallas team that has the sixth best offense in the entire league for the full season and that has produced the third best offense since the trade deadline but Luca isn’t the only difference maker here as Kyrie Irving has proven to be a hand and glove fit

Next to Luca as the maps are actually 26 and 15 this season when both Luca and Kyrie have been available all while outscoring opponents by es scorching 122.4 points per 100 possessions with those two guys on the floor which would ranked as the best offense in the NBA

Over the course of a full season and it’s actually getting scary for opposing teams because Luca and Kyrie have been working in tandem more and have been running more pick and rolls together since Kyrie returned from injury in early February and while defenses usually try to preempt a donic and

Irving pick and roll by defending both of them with similarly sized players to be able to switch their Twan game the mevs have still been borderline and Gable when they are able to find ways to creatively put their two stars together which I think is most most evident when

The Mavs big men are involved in a play just like here you can see Kyrie with the ball being guarded by a solid defender in Jaylen Williams while Luca off the ball is guarded by OKC’s best perimeter guy in lud Dort but this action becomes hard to defend as Daniel

Gafford sets the high screen for Kyrie with Luca actually setting a back pick here on Chad hungr who gafford’s Defender right here for a split second lud Dort lingers in the paint to Halen Gafford which frees up Luca and gives him time to flare out to the three-point

Line as he hits the shot over DOR slate contest then in this next play Luca starts the offense but he still actually lets Kyrie cook Luca sets the screen while Derek Lively also seemingly gets ready to set a second screen but then Kyrie rejects the pick from Luca and

Decides to attack Blake Wesley right here the presence of lively also prohibits wanyama from fully committing on the paint so Kyrie takes advantage of this by going all the way to the rim with the one-handed finish against the late help Kyrie Irving alone on the other hand has also been integral on

Introducing some added chaos into what’s long been a methodical and slow-paced Maverick’s attack as Kyrie constantly looks to expedite possessions by sprinting endtoend off a rebound or by making head-to-head passes to the Mavs players running on the open floor after years as constantly being one of the NBA’s slowest teams Dallas now ranks

10th in the NBA in terms of transition possessions per game and number nine in terms of points scored per game off transition but perhaps as importantly though is the fact that the maps are also winning the minutes they play when only one of Luca and Kyrie is on the

Floor well they’re not necessarily blowing anybody off in those minutes as they’re only a plus 2.1 when Luca plays with Kyrie on the bench and they’re also just a plus 1.2 with Kyrie playing and Luca resting but the fact that Dallas isn’t struggling to create offense when

Luca is off the floor is already a huge development in itself compared to what they had when they just acquired Kyrie Irving last season well of course it helps that in Big Man Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively the Mavs are getting a full 48 minutes of vertical spacing High

Efficiency screening and finishing at The Rim as both big men actually rank in the top 10 of points per possession produced as screeners in pick and rolls this season but also more importantly reflective of their size and interior presence is the fact that both Gafford

And Lively also rank in the top 30 of defensive field goal percentage allowed at The Rim this season among all high volume Defenders these two big men together with the long and athletic Dallas perimeter group and a more visibly engaged defender in Luca donic have been key to the Mavs ranking 11th

In the NBA in terms of opponent effective field goal percentage since the trade deadline and basically having that kind of top 15 defense recently paired with an already Elite offense could easily be a sign of playoff legitimacy for Dallas especially when they also have guys like Dante exom Josh

Green DK Jones PJ Washington and Jayden Hardy who are not only athletic Defenders who are capable of guarding multiple positions but who are also Adept at making connective passes finishing on the move and knocking down spot of three-pointers well Dante exom and Derek Jones Jr in particular two of

The team’s free agent signings this off season have been huge Revelations so far as those guys of two of Dallas’s three best on andof splits when LCA donic has been on the bench this season more importantly the two-way play of exim and Jones has helped mitigate the declining effectiveness of Veteran Wing Tim

Hardway Jr who after initially looking like a six-man of the Year candidate has actually been in a shooting slump the past 6 weeks but then d still has big man Max EBA who’s a small ball five who can also slide to power forward and provide solid defense both on the paint

And the perimeter kba’s reputation as a floor spacer and his chemistry with Luca donic will always cost Defenders to hesitate on making rotations even though kba isn’t necessarily making shots all the time as he shot only 23% from deep and just above 29% from the field since

The trade deadline also another thing to look forward to here is kba developing partnership with new addition PJ Washington as they’ve formed a small ball front Court that’s been outscoring opponents by 11.6 points per 100 possessions in their first 129 minutes together on the floor despite PJ Washington’s current shooting slump the

Success of this tandem points towards Washington’s most confident role within the MAV so far which is a sort of a complimentary big Wing who can attack defenses off the dribble and who can function while playing alongside a stretch big man like kba and a primary playmaker like Luca or Kyrie well sure

As of of this video the Mavs are just sitting at seventh place in the western conference with about a 2 and a half game lead over the N seated at Golden State Warriors but there are actually a lot of reasons to be optimistic about what comes next for Dallas first the

Early returns for the most recent edition of their starting lineup of Luca Kyrie Gafford Washington and Derek Jones have been outstanding as that fiveman unit has been a massive plus 46 on the floor despite having played just eight games together and that is actually the highest net rating by any fiveman Dallas

Lineup this season but more than that as we speak Dallas also has the easiest remaining schedule out of any Western Conference team for their last 12 games of the Season also if you come to think of it last year’s Dallas team was basically half-built after the mid-season trade for Kyrie

Irving but this current MAV team has far more death and competency around the Superstar pairing of Luca and Kyrie in fact this season Dallas has a superb 22 and5 win loss record against teams below 500 which means they’re winning games they’re supposed to and although they’re

Just 18 and 24 against teams with a winning record I think it still conveys a good chance for Dallas to win any matchup in the postseason given all the injuries and the roster changes they’ve had to endure but most importantly Luca donic was able to lead the Mavericks to

An unexpected run in the Western Conference Finals back in 2022 even with the roster that was ultimately too limited but with what they have this season it seems like the Mavs have their most dynamic team assembled yet around Luca and I think if this current roster is yet again rewarded with a successful

Po postseason run even if they fail to make the NBA finals this could mean that this Dallas team just might need one or two more tweaks before they get to accomplish the goal of winning a championship during the Luca donic era but how far do you guys actually see

The Dallas Mavericks going this postseason feel free to drop your thoughts in the comment section below and again if you’re new to the Channel please consider subscribing as well again this is real balls and I’ll see you on the next one peace

#NBA #DallasMavericks #LukaDoncic

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are the NBA’s wildcard contender. The Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving tandem is in full swing and after a regular season full of uncertainties and roster changes, the Mavs are definitely looking like NBA championship contenders towards the end stretch. The Western Conference has been very tough but the Dallas Mavericks have made their moves during the tradeline by acquiring big man Daniel Gafford and versatile forward PJ Washington and now, the Mavs have a formidable line-up that can match any team in the NBA playoffs. Luka Doncic is a legitimate MVP contender, Kyrie Irving has been amazing, Dereck Lively has been an amazing rookie, while offseason finds Derrick Jones Jr. and Dante Exum have been great for the Mavs.

But the question here is, can Coach Jason Kidd find the right rotations in the playoffs for the Mavs to beat teams such as Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, or Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns? Luka Doncic has been averaging career-highs across the board, while the Kyrie Irving game-winner comes just at the right time. But who will step up for the Dallas Mavericks in the postseason and why are they the biggest wildcard contenders in the NBA?

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Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks, NBA highlights today, Mavs highlights, Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, NBA news, Doncic Mavs, Pj Washington, Dereck Lively, Dante Exum, Can Luka Doncic win MVP, Kyrie Irving game-winner, Jazz at Mavericks full game highlights, Mavericks at Spurs, Doncic vs. Wembanyama, Oklahoma City Thunder, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, OKC Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA on Espn, Nikola Jokic, Giannis, Victor Wembanyama, NBA contenders, NBA playoffs

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