21. Dallas Mavericks

     By: Lucas Kochevar

      The Dallas Mavericks have been very mediocre ever since their championship run. It has been a couple of seasons of a first round exits and then last season they missed the playoffs all together. They ended up having the 9th overall pick in the draft and selected PG Dennis Smith Jr. He is added to a team that has a solid young core of Harrison Barnes, Nerlens Noel (for one more year on his deal), and then Dennis Smith Jr. They also still have Dirk Nowitzski, the best player in franchise history. The Mavericks have some solid role players but they lack a certain explosiveness. They hope that Dennis Smith brings that punch and he can take over the keys of the franchise from Dirk. This is the projected starting lineup from me. 

PG: Dennis Smith Jr.
SG: Wesley Matthews
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: Dirk Nowitzski
C: Nerlens Noel

6th Man: Seth Curry

       The PG position is rather deep with solid players like Seth Curry, J.J. Barea, and Devin Harris, but the gem of them all is Dennis Smith Jr. He is obviously the main option going forward. The SG position is held by Wesley Matthews. He is not an ideal starting SG, but he does a good enough job to keep it. The starting SF is Harrison Barnes and he did a good job as the primary scorer for the struggling Mavs. The depth at SF is weak with no solid backup option. The PF well forever be held by Dirk. Dirk is the greatest Dallas Maverick in history and he is one of the best scorers in NBA history. He should retire in the next couple of years, but right now he can still shoot the basketball. The starting center is Nerlens Noel and his situation is complicated. He signed a one year deal when he could have easily signed a bigger, longer deal with the Mavs, but instead he opted to bet on himself for a year. Dallas will not be a playoff team and will not be very good throughout this long season.