NBA: Contender Or Pretender?

Dallas Mavericks

Contender:

It wasn’t the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Miami Heat who gave the eventual champions their toughest playoff battle last year. No, the Spurs faced their biggest test — and near elimination — at the hands of the Mavericks in a seven-game dogfight spearheaded by Dirk Nowitzki, Monta Ellis and the genius of Rick Carlisle. Now that Dallas has a severely upgraded supporting cast, this is a potential Western powerhouse that nobody’s talking about.

In 2011, nobody was expecting the underdog Mavs to win a title, and the vibe is pretty similar entering the 2014-15 season. Dirk somehow just keeps chugging along, Tyson Chandler is back in town, Chandler Parsons gives the Mavs a promising young piece who will provide perimeter shooting and this team has a ton of solid bench defenders and veterans with playoff experience. All they’re really missing at this point Chandler Bing.

Pretender:

Then again, maybe we’re reading too much into one good playoff series. DeJuan Blair was a huge X-factor for Dallas in those seven games and he’s no longer around. Al-Farouq Aminu may just be a good defender who can’t contribute enough offensively to stay on the floor. Maybe that three-headed point guard attack of Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris and Raymond Felton sounds good on paper until you consider none of them are particularly good point guards anymore.

Having a ton of veterans bodes well since Carlisle already got a ton out of a pretty weak roster last season. But how long can the Mavs really depend on guys like Richard Jefferson, Greg Smith and Charlie Villanueva come playoff time? Then again, the Mavs have Summer League favorite Yuki Togashi, so how could we not label them contenders?

Verdict: Contender