NBA Power Rankings: Cavaliers are right where they want to be

79. Even though they have a Curry, Barnes and Bogut on their roster do not confuse the 2016-17 Dallas Mavericks with the 73-9 Golden State Warriors from a year ago. These are not your father’s Mavericks (well I don’t know if their run as a top tier Western Conference team dates back that long, unless your father is a teen dad). <p>It was announced that future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki will miss at least a week with soreness in his right achilles. This team has been hampered by the injury bug in the last few seasons and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.</p> <p>For the next week, or however long Nowitzki remains sidelined, Dallas becomes Harrison Barnes’ team (please stop laughing, there’s still two more teams left). The Mavericks have seen glimpses of a better Harrison Barnes, including his career-high 34 point explosion to get Dallas its first win of the season in an overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. However, last season’s prized signee, Wes Matthews, is experience a shooting slump as bad as any player not named Klay Thompson. Matthews shot 3-for-17 from the floor in that same overtime victory that saw Barnes drop 30-plus.</p> <p>Rick Carlisle is a genius in regards to basketball IQ and if there’s any hope of saving this season for Dallas than I trust that Carlisle will be able to uncover how to accomplish that. However, as of this writing it seems like the more fun storyline from the Mavericks will be whether or not Mark Cuban embarks on what seems to be budding political aspirations.</p>. . . Dallas Mavericks. 28. team