LAS VEGAS – The Dallas Mavericks lost Jalen Brunson to the New York Knicks this summer in free agency. But they rebounded nicely by acquiring a couple of players who can help them with their abilities to rebound the basketball.
The Mavs acquired center Christian Wood (6-10, 223) from Houston last month in a trade that sent Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, Sterling Brown and the No. 26 pick in this year’s NBA Draft to the Rockets. And earlier this month the Mavs signed Phoenix Suns free agent center JaVale McGee (7-0, 270) to a three-year, $20.1 million contract.
Wood averaged 17.9 points and 10.1 rebounds in 30.8 minutes this past season for the Rockets. In fact, he joined a very exclusive club that includes Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo, Deandre Ayton, Domantas Sabonis, Jonas Valanciunas and Nikola Vucevic as the only players who averaged at least 17 points and 10 rebounds this past season.
Mavs governor Mark Cuban is anxious about the prospects of watching Wood doing some dirty work on the boards, and also doing some heavy lifting in the pick-and-roll offense with three-time All-Star point guard Luka Doncic.
“I think (Wood is) going to surprise a lot of people,” Cuban told Mavs.com. “I think he’s a lot better than advertised.
“When he gets used to playing with Luka and gets used to his role, he can be a shot blocker, a rebounder, someone who can create offense and someone who can go for a lob. He’s just so, so versatile that we’re real excited to have him.”
Cuban has that same level of high excitement for McGee, who averaged 9.2 points and 6.7 rebounds in just 15.8 minutes this past season for the Suns. Especially since McGee has some championship pedigree after he won NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and ’18, and with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.
“He’s a three-time champion, he’s a vet, he blocks shots, he’s big and he’s physical,” Cuban said. “He knows how to play and he’s going to be great for us.”
The Mavs have some history with McGee, who wasn’t much of a factor when he played for Dallas during the 2015-’16 season. McGee missed the first 13 games of that season while dealing with a stress fracture in his left tibia, and was limited to just 34 games while plagued with various injuries through that season.
After initially signing with the Mavs on Aug. 13, 2015 at the age of 27, McGee played just 10.9 minutes per game in ’15-’16 and averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds while shooting a robust 57.5 percent from the field.
“He was hurt and he was coming back from injury, and he was younger,” Cuban said. “Now he’s been on a lot of championship teams, so he knows what it takes.
“He’s come such a long way. I’m excited.”
The Mavs were 24th in rebounding this past season at 43 boards per game. In addition, they finished 15th in rebounding out of the 16 teams that advanced to the playoffs at 36.5 per contest.
That includes getting outrebounded by 7.1 boards in their first-round matchup with the Utah Jazz, by 7.7 rebounds in the Western Conference semifinals against the Suns, and watching the Warriors out-board them by a whopping 11.4 rebounds in the Western Conference Finals.
But with the projected starting lineup next season expected to be Wood, McGee, the 6-7 Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith (6-7) and Spencer Dinwiddie (6-5), the Mavs should be in excellent position to get more than their fair share of rebounds.
“I think when you look at what Wood can do with rebounding, that’s going to be big for us and we need it,” coach Jason Kidd told Mavs.com. “We weren’t very good at rebounding (last season) and we hope to be better next season.
“We’re happy to have them on board, and then when you talk about rim protection and scoring, Wood can score, and so can JaVale. So we’re happy to have those guys on board.”
FIXING HARDY’S OFFENSE: After scoring 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting in the first summer league game against Chicago last Friday, rookie guard Jaden Hardy was held to just 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting during Monday’s 83-82 loss to Utah, and 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting during Tuesday’s 105-78 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The Mavs know Hardy’s offensive production much change before they battle the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday at 7 p.m. CT at Cox Pavilion.
“I think for him it’s just watching film (and) shot selection,” said Jared Dudley, who was the head coach for Tuesday’s game. “For him, he’s got to work on his craft, which he has so much talent, so much potential. I think we’re all hungry as a coaching staff to have him reach it.
“So being in the gym with him, watching film, defensively. . .right now he doesn’t know. And it’s our job to be able to teach him, and I look forward to the challenge in helping him.”
After playing high school ball in Henderson, Nev. — a suburb of Las Vegas — Hardy played last season for the NBA’s G League Ignite, where he averaged 17.7 points and 4.6 rebounds. But he just turned 20 on July 5, so he’s very young and impressionable.
“Obviously, the Ignite is a little bit different than summer league,” Dudley said. “It’s another level.
“For him, he struggles right now going left. And (defenses are) in a drop, and it’s a lot more athletic in length. We’ll work on Hardy and his mechanics and techniques that we have for him to be the pro we want him to be.”
BRIEFLY: With Christian Wood and JaVale McGee expected to play prominent roles this season, does that mean the Mavs will make some drastic changes with their offensive strategy to accommodate the two big men? “We’ll see,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ve got a couple of new players.” Kidd knows both Wood and McGee should benefit handsomely in the pick-and-roll alongside point guard Luka Doncic, who is one of the best in the NBA in dissecting that portion of the game. “We’ll probably make some adjustments,” Kidd said. “But overall, we’ve got a great bit of talent than we’ve had before, so we’ll be able to make some adjustments.”. .In losing guard Jalen Brunson to the New York Knicks in free agency, governor Mark Cuban said: “He’s a great guy. I wish him nothing but the best.”. .After playing Utah on Monday and Phoenix on Tuesday, the Mavs (0-3) took Wednesday off before preparing for Thursday’s game against Milwaukee. Jared Dudley, who was the head coach for the game against Phoenix, said: “We’ve got to be more scrappier. We’ve got to learn our defenses better. I thought game one (against Phoenix) was the one game that we had crazy energy. Utah, when we got down, we had some fight. (Tuesday), we didn’t have the fight. Hopefully, (Jaden) Hardy and the rest of the guys come back ready to fight on (Thursday).”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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