Are the Dallas Mavericks a Lotto Team?

A recent drubbing at the hands of the Manu Ginobili-less San Antonio Spurs has left the Dallas Mavericks at 3-5.

During that eight-game stretch, they only scored more than 100 points once, giving up 100-plus three times as well.

Which leads me to wonder...will the defending champs be out of the playoffs this year?

Part of the problem is that most of their roster is, for lack of a better word, old. Of the six players on the team who average 20 or more minutes, all are in at least their twelfth season. And most of them are on a downward trajectory.  

Their starting point guard, Jason Kidd, turns 39 before the season is over. He went two games without a bucket, and has yet to hit a two-point basket—while averaging fewer than five dishes for the first time in his career.

Kidd hasn't averaged more than eight points a game (or more than one two-point bucket a game) since the 2009-10 campaign.

And to cap it off, Kidd left Thursday's game with a back injury.

Even former MVP Dirk Nowitzki is showing signs of wear and tear, and it's clear to me that his best days are also behind him. Barring some unforeseen development, it's likely that he'll never make a All-NBA first team, average 25 a game, or shoot .350 from downtown again.

And then there's the fact that several key players are gone from the championship campaign.

Chief among them is post presence Tyson Chandler, who is taking his 2nd Team All-D to New York for a few seasons. In his place is Brendan Haywood, who never really amounted to much.

Also gone is driller J.J. Barea, who shot .349 from three-point land and added in four dishes a game. But now he's in the Land of 10,000 Point Guards.

Almost as important as those two players are the loss of three role players—Peja Stojakovic, Caron Butler, and DeShaun Stevenson. The first two provided depth at small forward during the season, and Stevenson gives depth at shooting guard.

Of course, Peja and Stevenson have given way to Lamar Odom and Vince Carter, respectively.

That's wonderful news. Compared with last season, Odom has halved his point and rebound totals and slashed his PER by 75%.  Or, to put it another way, if Ian Mahinmi is besting you in almost every category, you must be doing something wrong

And as for Vinsanity? Well, he never could do anything but score a lot of points, and now that he's dipped below 10 a game, he's not even doing that.

In short, the Mavericks are loaded with players who are either at the bottom of their game, or never had much game to begin with.

You could say that the Mavericks have a veteran team built for a long playoff run regardless of their regular season. But you can't have a long playoff run without making the playoffs. And it's not looking like this year's Mavs will.