NBA: Are the Dallas Mavericks contenders in the West?

The Dallas Mavericks have been one of the busiest teams of the NBA offseason. They re-acquired Tyson Chandler, signed Chandler Parsons away from Houston, and rounded out the roster with veterans Raymond Felton, Jameer Nelson, Al-Farouq Aminu, Greg Smith and Richard Jefferson. The question with Dallas isn’t whether they’ve gotten better — they have — but rather how much they’ve improved by.

Dallas’ problem in 2013 was their porous defense which finished 22nd in the league, allowing 105.9 points per 100 possessions. Their offense was the third best in basketball, which spurred them to 49 wins and the 8th seed in a loaded Western Conference, but they needed to upgrade their defense in order to truly contend. Because of this, Tyson Chandler is Dallas’ most important offseason acquisition.

The former Knick was the anchor of Dallas’ defense when they won the title in 2010. Chandler won Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, but was inconsistent and injury prone in ’12 and ’13. During the second round of the 2012 playoffs, he was dominated by Roy Hibbert. He wasn’t fully healthy, but still looked abysmal. Early last season, Chandler looked like he was back to 2011 form before breaking his leg and missing 20 games. In that stretch, the Knicks were 6-14 and never really recovered. When Chandler returned, he was uninterested and his effort waned.

It’s been nearly two full seasons since we’ve seen peak Chandler, but a significant coaching upgrade will help him. Under Mike Woodson’s lousy scheme in New York, Chandler was often playing left playing defense one-against-five. Rick Carlisle is a much better coach and will provide stability and structure around the newly re-acquired rim protector. But at age 31, it’s no guarantee that Chandler can re-find his old self. When he was at his best, he led the Knicks to a top-five defense in 2011. He likely isn’t capable of that anymore. At the very least he will be solid and an upgrade over Samuel Dalembert, but solid may not be enough to single-handedly get Dallas’ defense to a top 10 level.

In addition to the center position, the Mavericks would’ve done well to upgrade defensively on the perimeter too. They did not. The departed Jose Calderon was not good defender, but neither are his replacements. Felton is probably a downgrade. Calderon knew what he was doing and tried to put himself in the right position to play adequate defense. He just can’t keep up athletically. Felton – and Mike Woodson’s ambiguous pick-and-roll schemes do factor into this – showcased no defensive instincts or wherewithal in New York and is slow footed. If Nelson starts at point guard, him and Monta Ellis will form one of the smallest starting backcourts in the league.

Dallas is unlikely to re-sign Shawn Marion. At age 36, Marion isn’t the defender he used to be, but the Mavericks did little to replace him on that end. Chandler Parsons’ reputation precedes him as a solid defender, but he’s shaky at best. He brings much more to the table offensively, which will compensate for his average to below-average defense. But the fact remains that Dallas can’t guard elite perimeter players. That’s a problem in a conference dominated by Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Stephen Curry and the Spurs.

Al-Farouq Aminu is an intriguing get at the veterans minimum. His offensive game has not developed hardly at all in his four NBA seasons, but he’s strong defensively and an elite rebounding wing. He’s not going to supplant Parsons as a starter, but there are plenty of rotation minutes for him available. Aminu is probably best as a smaller four, so he can play alongside Parsons when Dirk sits. He can give Dallas strong defensive minutes, but he won’t see the floor in crunch-time. The Mavericks will have to rely on their scheme to get stops late in games. It’ll be solid, but it may not be good enough for them to have an edge against the elite teams.

On the flip side, Dallas is going to be nearly impossible to stop on offense. They were the third best offense in the league last season, scoring 109 points per 100 possessions, but have the potential to be even better than that. Parsons is a vast upgrade offensively over Marion, especially as an outside shooter. Carlisle is great at building offenses around the strengths of his players that also hide their weaknesses. The most prevalent weakness is Dallas’ offense will be Tyson Chandler’s inability to shoot, but the Mavericks will counter by using him as a screener in the pick-and-roll. It’s what they did in 2011 when they won the title. The Knicks won 54 games two seasons ago with an offense built around Chandler’s ability to set strong screens at the top of the key and collapse the defense on the roll.

It’ll be an offense that’s multi-dimensional. Dirk is the ultimate swiss-army knife. He can post-up, work at the elbows and is devastating in the pick-and-pop. Nelson, the assumed starter at point guard, is a strong outside shooter and a crafty ball-handler in the screen-and-roll. Carlisle’s offense did wonders for Ellis last season and there’s no reason to think that the scoring guard can’t be even better this season with increased spacing thanks to Parsons. With Felton and Devin Harris working their way in the guard rotation, Dallas’ fast-paced offense will always have a fresh ball-handler to get up and down the court. An in-shape and motivated Felton can be productive in a wide-open attack, but the Mavericks have enough depth to where they don’t need to rely on him. It’s a great place to be.

As an 8th seed last season, the Mavericks took the eventual World Champion Spurs to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. They’re better now. They can win a championship, but Dallas still isn’t better than the elite of the elite in the West. San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the Clippers are all better two-way teams and they remain the three best teams in the conference. But after them, it’s wide open. As was the case last season, Houston, Portland, Golden State, Memphis, Phoenix, and Dallas will all compete for the other five playoff spots. The Mavericks were able to survive and get in as the final playoff spot in the West. They’ll be in the playoffs again, but instead of fighting for the eighth seed they’ll likely be competing for home court in the first round.