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Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks once again fell in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. In 2020, the LA Clippers took down the Mavs in six games, with Kristaps Porzingis out due to a knee injury and Doncic not at 100% fitness. The team was at seemingly full strength in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, but a seven-game loss against the LA Clippers ended their season early once again.
Now, for the 2021-22 NBA season, the Dallas Mavericks have already rung in some big changes. Championship-winning coach Rick Carlisle has decided to leave the franchise and Jason Kidd will join as his replacement.
Kidd also won an NBA championship, but he did it as a player for Carlisle's 2011 Dallas Mavericks. There was some turmoil in the Dallas Mavericks' offices after the season ended and reports suggest that even Luka Doncic was a concern for the team when looking to the future.
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5 Issues for Dallas Mavericks in the 2020-21 NBA season
Reports have also suggested that Porzingis was not happy with not having a similar status to Doncic. Moreover, there was a change in the front office as Donny Nelson will not return as the team's general manager after almost two decades. Nico Harrison has taken the GM position for the Dallas Mavericks in Nelson's stead.
The team finished fifth in the West with a 42-30 record in the 2020-21 season, with Doncic playing at a superstar level. However, the postseason was underwhelming for the team, as an initial 2-0 lead against the LA Clippers and then a 3-2 lead with Game 6 at home were not enough to close the deal.
There is work to do for the Dallas Mavericks, and we take a look at five things that went wrong for the squad in the 2020-21 campaign.
#5 The Dallas Mavericks struggled defensively
As was the case in the 2019-20 NBA season, the Dallas Mavericks had a solid offense, but struggled defensively in the 2020-21 season. Last year, Dallas ranked 18th in the NBA in Defensive Rating and the trend continued in the 2020-21 campaign, with the team having a 113 Defensive Rating (20th in the NBA).
In the NBA Playoffs, it only got worse for the Mavericks on the defensive side as the team's Defensive Rating stood at 119.7 points allowed per 100 possessions. Among postseason teams, they had the fourth-worst Defensive Rating from the regular season, just ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.
#4 The offense was not the same as the previous year
Although the Dallas Mavericks were ninth in Offensive Rating in the 2020-21 NBA season with 115.4 points scored per 100 possessions, the offense was not at the same level as the previous campaign.
Luka Doncic led the Mavs to the best Offensive Rating in the entire NBA in the 2019-20 campaign. They recorded 116.7 points scored per 100 possessions.
In the 2020-21 campaign, the Mavericks were not able to perform at the same rate from the previous campaign. They averaged 112.4 points per game this year, compared to the 117 points-per-game average of 2019-20.
In terms of percentages, the Mavs were 13th in the NBA in field-goal percentage and 18th in 3P percentage. They were among the Top-10 in 3P shooting in the 2019-20 season.
#3 The Dallas Mavericks missed Seth Curry's efficiency
Seth Curry averaged 12.4 points per game with 49.5/45.2/82.5 shooting splits for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2019-20 NBA season. However, he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers on November 18th, 2020, a month prior to the start of the current NBA season.
In exchange for Curry, the Dallas Mavericks received Josh Richardson and Tyler Bey. After a full season since that trade, we can say with assurance that the Dallas Mavericks did not improve the team with that deal.
While Richardson brought more size to the Mavs, Curry's three-point shooting efficiency is something that any team in the league would miss. The 30-year-old helped the Philadelphia 76ers obtain the first seed in the East while averaging 12.5 points with 46.7/45/89.6 shooting splits.
On the other end, Richardson averaged 12 points per game, which is not too far from Curry's record. He also played two games more than Curry's 57. However, Richardson was not as efficient as Curry and made only 33% of his threes in the regular season.
In the NBA Playoffs, Curry was on fire for the 76ers, averaging 18 points per game with 58/51/79 shooting splits. Richardson, on the other hand, could only average 13.4 minutes per game for the Mavs in the series against the LA Clippers.
#2 Kristaps Porzingis' difficult year
Kristaps Porzingis' season started with him carrying a knee injury from the 2020 NBA Playoffs. He made his season debut only in the Dallas Mavericks' 10th game of the campaign.
Porzingis averaged a solid 20 points and 8.9 rebounds per game with 47/37/85 shooting splits in 43 regular-season games. However, both his chances on offense and percentages fell down in the Playoffs series against the LA Clippers.
Porzingis only averaged 13 points and five rebounds per game in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, while making only 29% of his three-pointers. The 25-year-old also mustered just 10 shots per game in the postseason as opposed to 15.9 attempts per game in the regular season.
#1 Luka Doncic's and Kristaps Porzingis' alleged chemistry issues
Porzingis' chances on offense dropped in the NBA Playoffs as explained before. This seemed to be directly connected to Luka Doncic, the team's offensive leader, primary ball-handler and decision-maker.
If Porzingis was not getting enough touches and was reportedly frustrated by that, then the anger might very well have been directed towards the Slovenian superstar.
Reports that suggest Doncic and Porzingis did not get along in the Dallas Mavericks' locker room might just show what the glaring issues for the side were in 2020-21. It remains to be seen if they can continue together for the upcoming campaign, though the Dallas Mavericks might look in a different direction. Reports have even suggested that the team is in the hunt for Kawhi Leonard during free agency.
Also read: 5 things that went wrong for Chicago Bulls in 2020-21 NBA season
