The Dallas Mavericks' grasp on a playoff spot in the Western Conference is growing increasingly tenuous with each passing day, and that hasn't been lost on Amar'e Stoudemire. With the team's championship hopes sinking after another blowout loss, the veteran forward went off on his teammates in front of reporters Tuesday night.
Why are the Mavericks now bad?
Guys like Amar’e Stoudemire deserve to be concerned as countless losses put the Mavericks’ playoff spot at risk. What’s caused Dallas’ decline? It’s more than just Rajon Rondo.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
“I came here to win, and we’re [4 ½] games out of being out of the playoffs, which is unacceptable,” Stoudemire said after a 33-point loss to Cleveland. “This is something we can’t accept. We’ve got to find a way to refocus. We’ve got to key into the details of the game of basketball.”
Stoudemire’s concern seems well placed.
The Mavericks appeared to be serious contenders in the West not too long ago, boasting one of the league's best offenses led by the masterful coach Rick Carlisle. A few months and one big trade for Rajon Rondo later, Dallas is seventh in the West standings and fighting off a pair of young, talented teams surging for the stretch run.
The Rondo deal seemed to be the turning point in the season, but things have gotten especially dire in the past few weeks. Double digit losses have been frequent, and since Rondo openly argued with Carlisle following a Feb. 24 benching, there hasn’t been much progress on that front.
It’s getting hard to view Dallas as a contender in the West, even though the team looked great just a few months ago. What happened to the Mavericks’ season?
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Welcoming Rondo
It's undeniable that the direction of the Mavericks' season changed on Dec. 18. On that day, the team agreed to acquire Rondo from the Boston Celtics for a package including Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson, Jae Crowder and draft picks.
At the time, everyone thought the Rondo deal might put an already strong Dallas team over the top. The former All-Star point guard would give the Mavericks welcomed athleticism and size on the perimeter as well as an exceptional playmaker with championship experience. There were concerns about his offensive fit, but the improvement defensively combined with Rondo’s championship experience was supposed to more than make up for those concerns.
Instead, Rondo has butted heads with Carlisle, struggled to fit into the team’s offensive schemes and generally muddled an otherwise winning formula. Making that move was always a risk of sorts for Dallas, and over the past few months its gotten the worst case scenario.
When Dallas acquired Rondo on Dec. 18, the team was 19-8 and boasted one of the most dominant offenses in the league. Since then, the team is 22-17, with a significantly less potent offense that’s not being offset enough on the other end of the floor.
Rondo’s inability to fit into the Mavericks’ offense explains part of their downfall. However, there are some additional factors worth considering.
Dirk shows his age
Sometimes, it can be easy to forget that Dirk Nowitzki is 36 years old given how good he's been in recent years. Armed with a dizzying array of moves and some of the deftest touch in the sport, Nowitzki's long managed to stay effective without the speed or hops of younger, more athletic players.
However, the past couple months have finally shown Nowitzki’s age.
Since a strong start to the season, the German big man is running through one of the worst stretches of his career. Over the past 20 games, Dirk is averaging just 13.8 points and 5.9 rebounds while playing over 29 minutes a night. Even more concerning, he’s shooting just 42 percent from the floor and 34 percent from three.
Those numbers, it goes without saying, are not Dirk-like. We’ve usually expected Nowitzki to get his 20 points a night at high efficiency, but over the past six weeks we’ve seen a significantly less effective player.
During the first 42 games of the season, the Mavericks outscored opponents by 8.6 points per 100 possessions with Dirk on the floor, per NBA.com. Since then, they’re getting outscored by 4.6 points per 100 when Nowitzki is out there.
These Mavericks were always built around Dirk. When he’s playing this poorly, that’s a tough thing for the rest of the group to weather.
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Shallow roster
Bringing in Rondo was risky not only because of the star’s questionable fit in Dallas, but because of the pieces the team gave up. Wright, Nelson and Crowder were key to the Mavericks’ depth, and bumping up other guys into the rotation hasn’t really worked.
Other than Al-Farouq Aminu and Devin Harris, there hasn't been a ton of help for the starters. Bernard James is arguably the team's best backup big man given the struggles of Stoudemire and Charlie Villanueva, and Jose Juan Barea is the only other decent guard behind Harris, Rondo and Monta Ellis. Richard Jefferson is the only backup on the wing, and he's well past his prime.
That makes it easier to see why an aging veteran like Dirk might be struggling down the stretch, as the Mavericks haven’t really boasted the impressive depth of other contenders. That largely went away with the Rondo trade, as Wright and Crowder had been two of the team’s best players off the bench. James and Aminu have filled in admirably at times, but there’s been nobody to bump up and take their minutes. That’s left Carlisle working with a limited rotation.
That limited rotation includes Stoudemire, who is playing poorly. When Stoudemire joined the Mavericks after his release from the New York Knicks last month, it was with an eye on winning his first championship. Instead, Dallas has been one of the league's biggest disappointments over the past few months, settling in as an average team despite an impressive roster.
Holding off the competition
With Anthony Davis back for New Orleans and Kevin Durant nearing his return, both of those teams are heading in the right direction. New Orleans has won nine of its past 11, including four of five with Davis back in the lineup, while OKC has won 10 of its past 13 thanks largely to the stunning efforts of point guard Russell Westbrook.
That’s three teams fighting for two playoff spots, and while the Mavericks have a massive advantage in the standings, they’re also trending the wrong way. The team isn’t just losing games, it’s playing mediocre basketball, and in the West, that won’t do.
The Thunder and Pelicans are gaining fast, and they’re both young, talented teams with a lot to play for. One imagines Davis is getting excited considering the possibility of his first postseason appearance, and, well, we’ve already seen what Westbrook is doing to opponents.
So the Mavericks need to start winning again if they want to live up to what Stoudemire expected after leaving New York, and it needs to happen soon. That’s not up to him as much as the team’s coaches and top players, though. Unless Carlisle can figure out how to get Dirk and Rondo back on track, it’s going to be a stressful finish to the season in Dallas.
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