Dallas Mavericks Preview 2007-08

2006-2007 Season Overview
Many of the Dallas Maverick fans are asking: What in the world happened last year!? During the regular season, the Dallas Mavericks were chasing down the Chicago Bull's record of the most wins in a single season. They were easily the favorites to win the NBA championship until the first round of the playoffs.

Baron Davis led his Golden State Warriors over the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. The Golden State Warriors absolutely dominated Dallas by out-hustling, out-shooting, and out-playing the Mavericks. The once dominant threesome of Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Dirk Nowitzki were completely shutdown and stunned by Golden State's energy.

Even worse, the Dallas Mavericks witnessed their heated rivals, the San Antonio Spurs and former teammate Michael Finley, move on to an easy and almost uncontested NBA championship. The Mavericks have had two very disappointing playoffs endings in a row, and fans are starting to become impatient.

Can Avery Johnson's Dallas Mavericks come back from this end of the season shocker and win the big one next year?

Strengths

The Dallas Mavericks still have the league's MVP Dirk Nowitzki. After last year's embarrassing playoff performance, the team has cut their losses and is now more determined than ever to win the championship.

With the quickness and outside shooting threat of Jason Terry, the versatility and athleticism of Josh Howard, defensive guard presence of Devin Harris, and the inside defensive, rebounding presence of Erick Dampier, the Dallas Mavericks have more than enough to make another run at the NBA championship

The Mavericks also have one of the league's greatest bench's which include the addition of Eddie Jones and rookie forwards Nick Fazekas and Reyshawn Terry.

Weaknesses

Dallas still has the main weakness of not having the center who can score on a consistent basis. Erick Dampier is a great defensive and rebounding presence, however, his free throw shooting and 6.3 ppg must be improved.

The Mavs also loss a key perimeter shooting threat with Austin Croshere which was key in some of the Mavericks wins of the 2006-07 season. If Dallas can develop consistency throughout the playoffs, there is not a team that can beat them.

Projected

The Mavs will easily make the playoffs once again this season in dominant fashion, however, they will get knocked out again in the early rounds if they have to face the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors dominated the Mavs in the regular season, and in the playoffs as well. Every Superman has a kryptonite, and the Warriors have proven to be Dallas'.

If Dallas can prove to beat the Warriors, there's a great chance that they will make their 2nd championship in three years, however, if not they might be seeing team changes in the 2008 off-season.