Last NBA season, the Dallas Mavericks were coming off an unexpected trip to the Western Conference Finals, but they were going stale. They hovered at or around .500 throughout the first half of the season, and even though Luka Doncic was having his best season yet, it was clear something needed to be done.
They shocked the NBA in early February by trading Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, and three future draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets for disgruntled star Kyrie Irving. It was suddenly thought the Mavs would become dark-horse contenders to reach the NBA Finals thanks to the league’s newest star tandem.
Instead, they lost most of their games the rest of the way and didn’t qualify for the play-in tournament. The outlook for Dallas isn’t looking much better, but there is legitimate hope it can return to the playoffs this season. One reason is a couple of low-key acquisitions it made during the offseason, including forward Grant Williams, obtained from the Boston Celtics in a three-team trade.
Williams isn’t an All-Star caliber player who will move the needle a great distance. But he is someone who can help the team improve in two key areas that were behind its colossal failure last season.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Grant Williams & Dallas Mavericks Updates
The Mavs did rank eighth in 3-point shooting percentage during the 2022-23 campaign, but they had some trouble knocking down outside shots late in the season when they lost a boatload of games, resulting in them missing the play-in tournament.
Williams has a career mark of 37.9 percent from beyond the arc; last season, he made 39.5 percent of such attempts. Even better, he averaged 3.7 3-point attempts in 25.9 minutes a game, which is a solid volume, especially for a role player like him.
Dallas needs to surround Doncic and Irving with as many strong 3-point shooters as possible. Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock, Christian Wood, and Davis Bertans, four of their best 3-point shooters last season, are gone; others need to pick up the slack.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Grant Williams & Dallas Mavericks Updates
Williams, a 2019 first-round draft pick, is just 24 years of age, so he should have room for improvement, especially regarding his outside shooting stroke.
Williams comes from a Celtics team that preached and won with defense. When they reached the 2022 NBA Finals, they did so on the strength of a defense that was tops in defensive rating in the regular season, and he can bring that mentality to a Mavs team that badly needs it.
The Mavs were just 25th in defensive rating last season, and down the stretch of the schedule, they couldn’t stop opponents. Williams is 6-foot-6 and weighs 236 pounds, giving him the size and strength to guard opposing power forwards. Head coach Jason Kidd can deploy him against men such as Kevin Durant and LeBron James, but he has also, at times, guarded stars as small as Stephen Curry.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Grant Williams & Dallas Mavericks Updates
By himself, Williams won’t be able to turn Dallas into a defensive juggernaut, but he is at least one piece that will get the team back on the right track in that category.
