NBA Power Rankings: Can Dallas Mavs Crack Top 5?

The Dallas Mavericks started the season in the bottom half of the NBA’s power rankings, but Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and company have made up considerable ground with their hot start.

Dalton Trigg | Nov 7, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

When the 2023-24 NBA season began, questions surrounded the Dallas Mavericks due to the disappointing results they had after trading for Kyrie Irving trade last season. Despite the Mavs’ front office making several key changes to the roster to give Luka Doncic and Irving adequate help, Dallas still found themselves in the bottom half of most NBA power rankings to start the season.

According to NBA.com’s latest power rankings, though, the Mavs are on the verge of cracking a top-5 spot on the list after getting off to a hot start. Climbing 11 spots in one week, the Mavs are at No. 6, trailing only the Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics.

Note: these power rankings don’t factor in the Mavs’ latest 117-102 win over the Orlando Magic.

Kyrie Irving snags a rebound in the Dallas Mavericks’ win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

“The Mavs haven’t won a game that wasn’t within five points in the last five minutes and they didn’t have much of a chance against the champs on Friday. But they’re 5-1, having scored 58 points on 41 clutch possessions (141 per 100) over their five close games,” John Schuhmann wrote.

“Luka Doncic leads the league in clutch scoring (25 points on 8-for-11 shooting). But Grant Williams was a hero on Sunday, going 3-for-3 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter against Charlotte. Williams has taken 76% of his total shots from 3-point range (up from 60% over the last two years) and is an amazing 23-for-41 (56%) from beyond the arc.”

If the Mavs can continue to rack up wins in the early part of their schedule, getting this kind of respect in power rankings will just be the tip of the iceberg. Dallas’ next opportunity to continue its momentum is on Wednesday night at American Airlines Center when they take on the Toronto Raptors.

Published Nov 7, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.