The Dallas Mavericks made significant changes to their roster over the summer. Under a new regime both in the front office and on the sidelines, the Mavs hope to build around Cooper Flagg for many years to come.
There were positive moves in service of that objective. Dallas added several intriguing young players who could grow with Flagg and be a part of this team for a long time.
The problem is, the Mavs have failed to address their most glaring weakness from a season ago: shooting. And unfortunately, this may come back to bite them again next season.
Shooting is still going to be a major concern for the Mavericks
There were only two teams that took fewer three-pointers than the Mavs last season in field goal percentage. Dallas was also a bottom-five team in terms of three-point accuracy, per Cleaning the Glass. Sacramento was the only other team in the league to rank in the bottom five in both categories.
As a result, the Mavs had one of the worst half-court offenses in the league. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Mavs ranked 27th in the league with 93.4 points per 100 half-court possessions.
This has negatively impacted Flagg's development. He was given ball-handling and shot-creation duties. He faced defenses that packed the paint because they weren't scared of the Mavs' outside shooting. This made things very difficult for Flagg, who had to resort to a ton of mid-range shots and floaters.
Shooting means everything in today's NBA, with guys spacing the court more and more. Dallas hasn't done much to address this problem. If anything, things could be even worse next season since Klay Thompson could leave between now and the start of the season.
Thompson made more threes than anyone else on the roster. He was the only reliable threat, along with Max Christie, that the opposing defenses had to respect. He hit 2.9 threes on 38.3% from downtown. Christie was the only full-time rotation player who had a good shooting season, making 40.4% of his threes on 5.8 attempts per game.
Of course, Kyrie Irving's return will help. Irving-Christie backcourt can generate and hit a lot of threes. The rest of the roster, however, leaves plenty to be desired.
If Marcus Sasser and Tarik Biberovic are in the rotation, they could be two-plus shooters. But they are unproven players whose roles on the team are currently unclear. Besides the two, there aren't any other players who are above-average shooters for their positions.
Dallas has to hope for a shooting improvement from several role players. Otherwise, spacing will be an issue, limiting the Mavs' offensive ceiling. Heading into Flagg's second season in the league, this is not the ideal position for the franchise.
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