Dallas Mavericks: 3 Players that disappointed this season

Dallas Mavericks finished 14th on the West leaderboard this year
Dallas Mavericks finished 14th on the West leaderboard this year

For ages, Dallas Mavericks have been all about Dirk Nowitzki and what he did for the franchise. Well, now with the German hanging his boots, apparently the golden period of the Mavs organisation is now behind us.

Dallas' 2018-19 regular season engulfed an obligatory farewell ride for the 14-time NBA All-Star who announced in the final game of the season that this will be his last year in the league. With all eyes fixated on Nowitzki for the most part of the year - and equally so on the rookie sensation Luka Doncic - Mark Cuban's Mavericks plodded through a fairly ordinary campaign yet again, to say the least.

Ending the season with a 33-49 (win-loss) record, the Mavs finished as the second worst team on the West standings (tied with the Pelicans and Grizzlies), despite winning nine more games than last year.

Moreover, throughout the 82-game long season, they won just 9 games on the road. That's proof of the fact that while Luka and Dirk were drawing most of the attention due to varied reasons, the rest of the crew exhibited incompetence in playing their roles.

Let's discuss the three individuals who failed to live up to the standards they were expected to, by a huge margin.


#1 Devin Harris

Devin Harris was an All-Star back in 2009.
Devin Harris was an All-Star back in 2009.

Signing with the Mavericks in August of 2018, Harris returned for his third stint with the franchise. As the team dealt with JJ Barea's injury, Harris got to play an average of 16 minutes throughout the season where he could only score a meagre 6.3 points per game. Shooting a miserable 31% from beyond the arc, Devin Harris gave clear signs that he's not as good as he once was.

Having played for 5 NBA teams in his 15-season long career, Harris got more appreciation via coaching offers than for his on-court performance. Coming off the bench and playing as the fourth or fifth guard in the rotation, the 36-year-old veteran produced just nine double-digit scoring games in all throughout his latest year in Dallas.

The 5th overall pick from the 2004 NBA draft finished his one year deal and is set to be a free agent come July.

#2 Maxi Kleber

In 2015, Kleber signed a two-year deal with Bayern Munich.
In 2015, Kleber signed a two-year deal with Bayern Munich.

After going undrafted in 2014, Kleber played for a Spanish club followed by two years with Bayern Munich before signing with the Mavericks in July of 2017.

In his second year with the Mavs, Maxi played 71 games - of which he started in 18 - and got over 21 minutes of playtime per matchup. During all that time on the court, all he could manage was a subpar scoring average of 6.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

With over 5 attempts per game, his field-goal conversion dropped to 45%. Moreover, playing as a power forward for Dallas, he went to the line barely once every game and had an ordinary 76% shooting from the FT line.

Kleber was BBL's most effective player just a couple of years ago (2017) but evidently so, his style of play hasn't translated well from Europe to the NBA.

#3 Dorian Finney-Smith

Dorian Finney Smith went undrafted back in 2016.
Dorian Finney Smith went undrafted back in 2016.

After missing considerable playing time (57 straight games) due to left knee quadriceps tendinitis, Dorian couldn't bounce back during his 2018-19 campaign as many expected him to. He played a total of 81 games, starting in 26 of them but could only post averages of 7.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

Finney-Smith started the year shooting 51.6% overall and 44.4% from the distance but as the ending of the regular season neared, his shooting cooled off a decent-but-not-great 43% from the floor and 31% from deep.

Shooting inconsistencies and a recent past marred with significant injuries saw Coach Carlisle making way for other players by reducing Dorian's role frequently.

“I just try to go out there and play my minutes and play them hard,” Finney-Smith said. “That’s all I can control.”

According to Doyle Rader of SB Nation,

Even though he’s found himself with a diminished role as the result of the Mavericks’ money games, Finney-Smith is taking it in stride.

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Edited by Debjyoti Samanta