In mid-December, the Dallas Mavericks had a fun team that wasn't going anywhere in the playoffs. We can be honest about this, right? Their free-flowing offense was beautiful to watch, but their perimeter defense was torn apart by good teams and incumbent point guard Jameer Nelson was shooting 37 percent from the field. Dallas was headed for a strong regular-season record and early-round playoffs defeat.
The Mavericks decided that wasn't enough in Dirk Nowitzki's twilight. They made a blockbuster trade, acquiring Rajon Rondo from the Celtics for Nelson, Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder and a first-round pick. They knew the fit wasn't going to be seamless, but banked on Rondo raising their playoff ceiling.
But integrating Rondo has been more difficult than expected. His inability to score cramped Dallas' spacing and had an adverse effect on players like Monta Ellis and Chandler Parsons. Ellis in particular tanked after a fast start, posting a true shooting percentage below 47 after the NBA All-Star break. Dallas' defense improved, but its offense fell off even more. Losing Wright and Crowder hurt the team's frontcourt depth, forcing them to rely on veteran cast-offs like Charlie Villanueva and Amar'e Stoudemire. Even Nowitzki himself began showing his age, though you can't blame Rondo for that.
The Mavericks thus stumbled into the No. 7 seed, winning just one more game than last year, despite replacing Shawn Marion and Samuel Dalembert with Parsons and Tyson Chandler. A first-round series win seems unlikely, but the playoffs is also when the Rondo deal was supposed to pay off the most. Can this veteran crew turn back the clock?
