Risacher<\/a>, Sasser, Klay Thompson and P.J. Washington. They’ll need to waive or trade a player by opening night to meet the league maximum of 15.<\/p>\nMay arrives with the benefit of familiarity after coaching Johnson last season at Michigan, but he’ll have to learn more about how the rest of the roster pairs. He’ll have the opportunity to experiment with rotations and combinations\u00a0during training camp and the preseason, which includes two games against the Houston Rockets in Macao, China.<\/p>\n
That experimentation could very well bleed over into start of the regular season, which has yet to be announced by the NBA, but here is a projection of how the Mavericks’ rotation could look on opening night, even though someone will eventually have to be moved.<\/p>\n
Starting lineup<\/p>\n
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Mavericks’ depth chart<\/p>\n
PG: Kyrie Irving, Marcus Sasser, Sergio De Larrea<\/p>\n
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SG: Max Christie, Klay Thompson, Tarik Biberovic<\/p>\n
SF: Cooper Flagg, Naji Marshall, Zaccharie Risacher, Caleb Martin<\/p>\n
PF: P.J. Washington, Morez Johnson Jr.<\/p>\n
C: Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, Santi Aldama, Moussa Cisse<\/p>\n
The Mavericks could return the same starting lineup from last season and insert Irving, providing the first unit with an elite ball-handler and efficient perimeter shooter who could alter the dynamic of an offense that ranked 27th in the NBA last season. The biggest starting lineup battles could come from the shooting guard and center position, but Irving’s presence tremendously enhances the group’s offense.<\/p>\n
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Adding another dynamic 3-point shooter to that lineup could help every member of the starting five, especially\u00a0Flagg, who won’t have to shoulder as much of the offensive burden as he did as a rookie. Irving’s gravity will also help Christie receive cleaner looks from 3, and his ability to draw several defenders should open the lob game, maximizing Lively and Gafford’s talents.<\/p>\n
As for the bench, this is where May will be tested most. There are several players on the roster with versatility and size and the coaching staff need to find a good balance of playmaking, shooting and defensive pressure.<\/p>\n
A clear rotation projection will be easier to project once the Mavericks conclude their offseason with the inevitable cut or trade to finalize the roster, but this current depth chart proves the team will be full of interchangeable wings for May to tinker with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) congratulates teammate forward Naji Marshall (13) after a play during the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85,287648],"class_list":["post-814481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-tp-dallas-mavericks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}