Can the Dallas Mavericks become the Golden State Warriors? The Mavs have a Barnes and a Curry. Remember the Warriors had a Barnes and a Curry? The Warriors won a championship having a Barnes and a Curry. Barnes is obviously not on that Warriors team anymore and obviously resides here in Dallas with our Mavs. The Curry that the Mavs have is a very good player but the chances of Seth Curry panning out like his brother Steph is very unlikely. But we aren’t comparing Seth to Steph. We aren’t comparing the Harrison Barnes we see today compared to the Harrison Barnes who played for the Golden State Warriors.
I asked the question, can the Dallas Mavericks become like the 2016-2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors? The answer of course is nobody knows. But they can put themselves in a position to compete and contend. They started this youth movement of competing and contending last summer when they were able to sign Harrison Barnes away from the Warriors when the Warriors decided to aim for eventual NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant.
Harrison Barnes just turned 25 after having a very superb season for the Mavericks. Barnes averaged 19 points per game and 5 rebounds in his first season in Dallas. Barnes took on a role he had never took on before. He took on the role of being the lead guy on an NBA team. When Barnes was with the Warriors he was the fourth option behind Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. A lot of people behind Mavericks camp believe that Barnes will do even better in his second year as the lead guy. The optimism is very high.
Right before the trade deadline this past season, the Dallas Mavericks made a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers to acquire Center Nerlens Noel. Noel played 22 games for the Mavericks averaging 8.5 points per game along with 6.8 rebounds per game. Noel is only 23 years old. Noel will become a restricted free agent on July 1st. Although the Mavericks do expect to re-sign Noel to a long term contract and have expressed confidence that he will succeed well with the Mavericks system in the years to come.
The NBA Draft takes place on June 22nd and the Mavericks are in the draft lottery for the second time since 1999. The Mavericks who have developed a reputation especially amongst Mavericks fans for not being able to draft well, are in prime position to score in this year’s draft.
Up until this season, the Mavericks have been considered an “older” team. If the Mavericks want to become like the Golden State Warriors, the Mavericks must develop their young talent. Curry, Thompson, and Green did not turn into the stars we see today overnight. The Warriors drafted and developed well over a number of years. The Mavericks must follow that strategy. We live not only in a copycat league but a copycat society. The Mavericks must take the blueprint of the Warriors and implement it into their short term and long term plans.
The Warriors drafted and developed well. The Warriors then were able to sign veterans to small deals with their young and developed talent and then when the time was right able to use the rest of their money to sign a top player away in his prime in Kevin Durant.
The Mavericks situation is not the same since Harrison Barnes is already signed to a max contract, and Nerlens Noel will most likely get s max contract or somewhere close to it. The Mavericks have already started the developing stage as they have already started to develop Barnes and Noel. But beginning next week, the Mavericks can begin the drafting well stage of this process.
Outside of the face of the franchise in Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavericks are parting ways with their older talent so they can get young talented players to use for trade pieces, to develop well, and to be in a position to sign big if the chips fall right in place. If the Mavericks can follow these footsteps, they can be in position overtime to compete and succeed like the current 2016-2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors.
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