After posting win totals of 33 and 24 in the least two seasons, the Mavericks are ready to get back to their winning ways that were associated with the franchise for the first decade plus of this new millennium.

Dallas had a bigger infusion of talent this summer than any in recent memory and it has plenty of its incumbent members excited for the on-court possibilities.

“It’s great to have a similar team but with more talent,” guard J.J. Barea said.  “With (DeAndre) Jordan and Luka (Doncic) coming in, it’s awesome.  I think it’s going to be great for us.”

The Mavs are bringing back a large portion of their 2017-2018 roster back for this season and hope that the additions of big man DeAndre Jordan and rookie phenom Luka Doncic will be enough to catapult them from the bottom of the standings to right back in the fray battling for a playoff spot in the daunting Western Conference.  For the players, it isn’t coming down to hope.  The confidence in their ability to succeed is there.

“I think it’s time we start to compete at a higher level,” says fifth year big man Dwight Powell.  “I think we have all the pieces we need.  We have a great group of guys who get along off the court and once we develop that chemistry on the court, we’ll be in a good place.”

Friday night’s preseason finale loss against the Hornets definitely seemed to indicate the on-court chemistry had begun to heat up for Dallas’ brightest stars.  The team’s starting lineup of Luka Doncic, Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and Dorian Finney-Smith each logged at least 26 minutes Friday night and all played close to the entirety of the first and third quarters.  In those quarters, Dallas outscored Charlotte 68-53.  The sizzling duo of Smith Jr. and Doncic seems to be getting better each minute they spend on the court together.

This @dallasmavs duo is going to be one to watch! 👀

Luka Doncic: 18 PTS, 4 AST, 3 STL
Dennis Smith Jr.: 16 PTS pic.twitter.com/OxUPDElx3F

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 13, 2018

If that type of offensive output from the guys who will log heavy minutes for Dallas all season long is even somewhat close to what they’ll actually do in the regular season, there’s no reason this team shouldn’t improve their win total by at least ten games from the 24 they complacently finished with last season.  Adding the team’s leading scorer of the last two years in Harrison Barnes back into the mix eventually will only make things better as his spot-up shooting and solid defense on the perimeter is something any contending team would take.

When you factor in the team’s struggles in close games last season, it’s easy for the optimistic Mavs fan to see this team finishing close to or above the .500 mark this season because of massive improvements in that area.  For lack of a better way of putting it, they purposefully lost games the final six weeks of the last two seasons.  Coach Rick Carlisle would pull starters from close games occasionally and let younger lineups try to figure it out on their own.  The results were about what you’d expect.  Adding in another capable playmaker in the clutch in Doncic plus another year of experience under the belts of Barnes and Smith Jr. will hopefully limit mistakes down the stretch of tight games.  Also, it’s definitely going to be nice to have last season’s second-leading rebounder in the league in Jordan down low to grab those big-time boards anytime your defense gets a stop late in a game.

The biggest key to any Mavericks big picture success, like battling for a playoff spot, will be putting the right foot forward out of the starting gate.  There are simply too many uber-talented teams in the Western Conference to falter at the start of the year and try to make up for it the rest of the season.

In 2017-2018, the Mavericks lost their first two games at home to two teams in Atlanta and Sacramento that would eventually finish higher than them in the lottery.  They lost their first four games and eventually fell to 1-10 and immediately removed themselves from the playoff race.  They simply cannot do that this season.  Their schedule and some odd circumstances are definitely trying to help them start out better this time around.

Dallas’ first two road games are against two teams in Phoenix and Atlanta that should probably finish with two of the worst records in the league.  Then their home opener is against the Minnesota “Sh– storm” Timberwolves as they try to fight through the never-ending Jimmy Butler saga and that’s followed up by a visit from another likely bottom-feeding team in the Chicago Bulls who will be without one of last year’s best rookies in Lauri Markkanen.  It’s not exactly easy after that, but if the Mavericks can come out of that stretch with their heads comfortably above water, they should be able to at least fight admirably until the schedule enters another favorable stretch.

Things certainly won’t be eased by Dallas’ injuries to start the season.  Both Harrison Barnes and Dirk Nowitzki have missed the entire preseason due to injuries.  While Barnes won’t playing in Phoenix on Wednesday night, he figures to be back in the mix sooner rather than later.  Nowitzki, on the other hand, remains a massive unknown.  As recently as Media Day, Dirk was moving with a noticeable limp.  He has traveled with the team and has been seen doing light work on a treadmill, but Rick Carlisle says he will not play until he has had substantial practice time.

At this point in his career, Nowitzki is a complementary, yet still important, piece to the Mavericks puzzle.  Whenever he is able to return, his minutes will likely be a smaller number than MFFLs are used to, but if his shot is still there, he should be very effective.  A second unit built around the likes of Nowitzki, Powell, J.J. Barea, Devin Harris and another wing should be one of the best in the league offensively.  Carlisle will have a lot of toys to have fun with when constructing his lineups.

A lot will have to go right for the Mavericks to work their way back into the NBA Playoffs this season.  A lot of things will have to go wrong for some other teams with the same goals for Dallas to pass them up in the standings.  It’s definitely not an impossible goal, though.  This is the team’s most talented roster in several years and the emphasis on youth at the top means that there is a lot of room for them to get even better as the year goes on.  So question them if you want, but this Mavericks team is ready to win some games.