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*Photo via USA Today
It seems that every year heading into free agency, the Dallas Mavericks are meeting with marquee free agents time and time again. However, each time they come up empty with no big names heading to Dallas. In recent years some of the marquee players the Mavericks missed out on are Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Dwight Howard. Last year by far was the worst loss for the Mavericks during free agency. The Mavericks had reached a verbal agreement with DeAndre Jordan. A mere five days later, Jordan was agreeing to resign with the Los Angeles Clippers. Now what is the strange habit with all of these big names signing elsewhere? The general public writes off the Mavericks each season; yet every year led by Dirk Nowitzki they remain competitive.
Currently the Mavericks are 15-12, and are sitting fifth in the Western Conference. The most unusual stat is this: the Mavericks are shooting just 43.9 percent as a team from the field. Despite this awful shooting they’re above .500, it seems the Mavericks enjoy playing the role of underdog. With this early success by the Mavericks, somehow Dirk Nowitzki has flown under the radar. At 37 years old, Dirk hasn’t lost anything off his game. He leads the Mavericks with 17.1 points per game and he’s shooting a ridiculous 48 percent from the field and 38 percent from three.
As the season progresses, it will be interesting to see if Wesley Matthews can find more efficiency shooting the ball. Matthews is shooting just 36 percent from the field, however, he’s shooting 34 percent from behind the arc. Matthews is coming off surgery for his torn achilles, so it’s only natural for his game to be slightly rusty. Along with Matthews, Deron Williams has been a huge part to the early success of this team. Williams is by no means the same player he was used to be, nagging injuries have taken their toll on him. Although this year he has looked better than he did his final stretch for Brooklyn. Williams is averaging 15.1 points a game with five assists. Now with this Mavericks team formed from just about whatever they could find, he’s been more than they could ask for so far. Head coach Rick Carlisle; deserves a lot of the credit as well for this Mavericks start. Not many coaches with this talent level could keep the Mavericks competitive in the Western Conference, yet Carlisle seems to make do with whatever hand he’s dealt. With that being said, the Mavericks are underdogs and will continue to surprise the NBA behind Carlisle pulling the strings and Nowitzki leading the charge on the court.