The Mavericks took off Sunday from Dallas and touched down in Abu Dhabi a mere 19 hours later – sometime Monday and probably somewhat less than bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
It’s not exactly like catching a 40-minute flight to Houston.
But when they got there, it mattered not that they were half a world away in a foreign land. They still had to deal with the same familiar issue that they were working on in the comfy confines of their training facility before they left.
Rebounding. And, by extension, defense.
The Mavericks have been a poor rebounding team for . . . well, let’s just recount.
Last season, they had a minus-5.9 rebound margin per game. It was 44.7 for foes, 38.8 for the Mavericks. They allowed the opponent to keep possession of the ball way too much.
In 2021-22, it was 43.6 to 43.0. It’s probably no coincidence that that’s the only season since 2011 when they’ve gotten past the first round of the playoffs (made the Western Conference finals). But they were still minus-0.6.
In 2020-21, they again had a minus-0,6 at 43.9 to 43.3.
You have to go back to the coronavirus season, 2019-20, to find a year when the Mavericks had a rebounding average. With Luka Dončić and Kristaps Porzingis both averaging over nine boards per game, the Mavericks outrebounded their opponents on average by 46.9 to 45.4.
Luka, by the way, mentioned the problem during his first-day-of-camp media session.
“One thing we want to emphasize this year is rebounding,” he said. “We got to get better on our rebounding.”
That was part of the reason they brought in No. 12 overall draft pick Dereck Lively II. When he begins to get more playing time, that should help with the rebounding. Also, newcomer Richaun Holmes has been a solid rebounder when he received rotation minutes earlier in his career.
And refinements to the Mavericks’ defensive schemes will be made, too.
“When you look at being able to rebound the ball, (it’s) something we’ve always struggled with,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Hopefully, some of these adjustments defensively will put us in a better situation to rebound the ball.
“There will be a lot of things that we have changed to adapt to today’s game. We’ll see how it goes in preseason. As coaches, we have all these great ideas. Until we put them out and see that they don’t work, and then we have to make a change. But hopefully these changes will put us in a better situation defensively.”
And it’s not like the Mavericks have bad defensive players. Yes, they lost Dorian Finney-Smith, who was their best defender, in the Kyrie Irving trade. But they acquired Grant Williams in free agency and Boston usually had him guarding everybody from Giannis Antetokounmpo to James Harden.
And Lively is a legitimate 7-1 rim protector.
“He has that ‘it’ factor, man,” said Tim Hardaway Jr. “I always look at him like, he’s doing the same things Tyson Chandler did when I was going to New York. Lob threat, rebound the ball, defensive threat, communicating, talking. He’s doing that. He’s making it known that he’s here and he’s here to help us win.”
And it’s that rebounding ability that Hardaway believes will be the biggest asset for the Mavericks.
“I think defensively we were fine,” he said of the last season. “It was ending the possession. I think that’s where a lot of athletic, young guys that understand the defensive principles, and they’re starting to get it . . . we don’t have to do a lot of teaching. They know what they got to do.
“It’s more securing the ball once you get the stops. I think that was one of our big struggles. So I think continue to work on rebounding, ending the possession, gives us a lot more opportunities on the offensive end to do what we love best.”
As everybody knows, scoring has never been an issue for the Mavericks. So starting Thursday in Abu Dhabi against Minnesota, the journey of fixing the rebounding begins.
Briefly: Before the Mavericks took off for the Middle East, Dwight Powell had some observations. He’s one of the few Mavericks who actually has vacationed there. “It’s very different from here,” Powell said. “And there’s a lot of value in visiting places and immersing yourself in places that are very different from where you spend the majority of your time. We’re going to see a different culture and that’s very valuable.” And the value for the Mavericks will be having plenty of time in Abu Dhabi and, later, in Madrid, to bond. Powell also is hoping to get some long-distance Maverick fans to the games in Abu Dhabi on Thursday and Saturday. “I’m trying to get some of my friends that live on that side (of the world) to figure out a way to get over there,” he said. “Some of them have not been to an NBA game of mine. That would be really cool.” . . . The NBA announced on Monday that the Mavericks’ game on Jan. 17 at the Los Angeles Lakers has been changed to 7:30 p.m., Dallas time, and will be televised on ABC instead of ESPN. Also, the Jan. 24 home game against Phoenix will change to 8:30 p.m., Dallas time, and will remain on ESPN.
Twitter: @ESefko
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