Mavericks Aren’t Old, They’re Just Experienced

The Dallas Mavericks have a huge problem entering the 2009-2010 season—they’re not the Los Angeles Lakers.

Then again you can pretty much say that about any team in the Western Conference.

With the addition of Ron Artest, Lamar Odom resigning, and Kobe Bryant still on the team, the Lakers can win 62 regular season games without breaking a sweat. They are the consensus pick to win the West.

Despite getting another year older, NBA experts still list Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs as the second best team in the conference. You can even find a few pundits that think the Spurs have made enough positive offseason moves to sneak past the Lakers.

So where does that leave the Mavs?

This off season the Mavericks, in a complicated four team deal, sent forwards Devean George and Antoine Wright to the Toronto Raptors and Jerry Stackhouse to the Memphis Grizzlies. In return, the Mavs received small forward Shawn Marion, power forward Kris Humphries, center Nathan Jawai and guard Greg Buckner.

Marion will start, Jawai will back up Erick Dampier, and Humphries and Buckner are long shots to make the team.

The Mavs’ other big offseason move was resigning future hall of fame point guard Jason Kidd to a 3-year, $24 million deal.

The team also signed power forwards Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas for size and depth.

Fans with Mavs tickets are likely to see a starting five comprised of Kidd, Josh Howard, Marion, Dirk Nowitzki and Dampier.

The youngest member of that starting five is Howard and even he's 29. Combined, the Mavs’ starters are 161-years-old. Meanwhile, the starting five of the Portland Trail Blazers are just 119-years-old.

Entering training camp, the Mavs have on their roster 7 players with 10 or more years of NBA experience.

The Mavs’ wisdom and talent should be enough to win 50 to 52 games. Unfortunately in the West that will earn a team just a 5th or 6th place finish. Last year’s team finished 50-32—good enough for the 6th seed in the Western Conference Playoffs.

The trick for the Mavs in 2009-2010 is playing small ball as much as they can and keeping those old bones fresh. That might be easier said than done in a season in which they play 19 back-to-back games.

If the Mavs can stay healthy and somehow garner home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, they might be able to to knock off the Lakers or the Spurs and reach the NBA Finals.

However, such a contingency would more than likely involve Bryant or Duncan sitting on the sidelines in street clothes… next to either Pau Gasol or Tony Parker.

For the Mavs to be real contenders in the West, owner Mark Cuban needs to make at least one more significant roster move.