Dallas Mavericks: 4 Reasons They Won't Make the NBA Finals After Roster Changes

The Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA last season when they trounced Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, and then completed their majestic journey by demolishing LeBron James and the Miami Heat in six games to win the NBA championship.

A year later, the Mavericks have nearly become unrecognizable. Although they have kept their No. 1 scorer in Dirk Nowitzki, the most noticeable void is the one in the middle, left by Tyson Chandler who signed with the New York Knicks to help them potentially achieve the same goal the Mavericks did with him only a season ago.

The decisions Mark Cuban made from a business standpoint can certainly be justified and maybe even understood due to the newly structured CBA agreement. From a basketball perspective however, it is hard to rationalize letting go of a player that your superstar player gushed over and labeled as the greatest teammate he ever had.

Certainly Cuban did his best to replace Tyson Chandler, Jose Juan Barea, and DeShawn Stevenson with competent replacements...first, swiping Lamar Odom from the Lakers and not too long after, signing Vince Carter and Delonte West.

Somehow, though, it just doesn't seem like enough to compensate for the impact made by the departed players mentioned above to help them return to the elite level they'll need to reach again to return to the NBA Finals, let alone to repeat as champions.

4. Their New Acquisitions Make Them Too Offensive-Minded

After losing DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Corey Brewer, and Tyson Chandler, the additions of Lamar Odom, Vince Carter and Delonte West have done little to fill the defensive void left behind by the players who are now donning jerseys for other squads in the NBA.

Granted, Caron Butler was out for a good portion of the season, but had he returned this season, he certainly would've helped in this department.

The addition of Vince Carter makes up a little bit for Peja Stojakovic's retirement, giving them someone who can knock down an open jumper, but it does nothing for them defensively.

The addition of Delonte West will give them someone who can be a pest on defense, as he has already shown, averaging 3 steals per game in his first two contests this season. However, he lacks the length and toughness which was provided by DeShawn Stevenson. 

It's also going to be hard for West to replace the defensive intensity brought by two players in Stevenson and Brewer, potentially three with Butler returning this season completely healthy.

The most intriguing addition to the new-look Mavericks is Lamar Odom, who can give defenses fits due to his length and quickness, which allows him to guard both the small forward and power forward positions.

Unfortunately for the Mavericks, Odom doesn't have the height to impose his will on the opposition's offense the way Tyson Chandler did.

When the playoffs roll around, it will be harder for the Mavericks to match up with the bigger front lines that some of the younger elite teams in the NBA bring to the court.

3. Lack of Depth

Coming into the 2011 NBA playoffs, the Mavericks boasted the deepest team in the NBA.

Fast-forwarding to this season, the Mavericks bench is looking a lot thinner and older as well.

Brendan Haywood, who serves better as a back-up center, is now forced into the starting lineup and the plethora of swingmen the Mavericks prided themselves on last season has become significantly depleted.

Although the Mavericks team last season was, for the most part, equally as experienced or old (depending upon your perspective), they were a lot deeper last year, so having an older team didn't slow them down.

Their lack of depth is sure to slow them down, and will become even more of an obstacle they must figure out how to overcome during a condensed season and a faster approaching postseason. 

2. Age Will Become a Major Factor

Although the Mavericks' older players will certainly become an issue during the playoffs and a condensed season, the young players they do have will also pose a problem for them throughout the season.

The youngest players on the Mavericks this season are too inexperienced (Ian Mahinmi, Brandan Wright, Dominique Jones), are banged up and inexperienced (most notably Roddy Beaubois), or are a little wild (Delonte West, this one's for you.)

If the make up of their roster didn't change dramatically from last season, the issue of inexperience wouldn't be a problem; unfortunately for the Mavericks, their roster has changed a great deal.

Dirk Nowitzki was quoted as saying that the Mavericks "look old, slow and out of shape."

Regarding the "old" part, he'd be disheartened to see just how right he is.

The Mavericks core of rotation players (Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Lamar Odom, Brendan Haywood and Delonte West) experience in the NBA adds up to a grand total of 96! (West is the least experienced with seven years in the NBA, with Kidd being the elder statesman of the group with 17 years of service in the League.)

Now let's take an up and coming young team like the Oklahoma City Thunder for comparison purposes. The Thunder's core rotation consists of: Nick Collison, Daequan Cook, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor, Nazr Mohammed, Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha and Russell Westbrook all total out to 50 years of time in the NBA.

Even more frightening for the Mavericks is that the Thunder featured two more players than they do in their rotation with 10 players compared to the Mavericks' eight. 

Interestingly enough, the Thunder have actually been anointed by many to come out of the Western Conference this season.

The Thunder are not a fluke example of youth in the Western Conference either, with the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers being two other teams who are likely to make the playoffs, as well as the ever-improving cellar-dwelling teams like the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves being built upon a youthful foundation as well.

1. Loss of Dichotomous Height Advantage

While the first person who obviously comes to mind when you mention height advantage with the 2011 Dallas Mavericks championship team is Tyson Chandler, which is absolutely true, the Mavericks may have been the first team in recent memory to turn a shortcoming of being small into a personal gain.

Jose Juan Barea is that player who turned tiny into terrifying. During the Mavericks match-up against the Miami Heat specifically, no one was able to contain the lightning-quick Barea, as he weaved his way to the hoop, getting to any spot on the floor that he wanted.

There is nothing more demoralizing, than being defeated by a player who is half your size.

The Mavericks are one of the first teams in recent memory that utilized the dichotomy behind height advantage, that felt revolutionary and unprecedented.

Having height advantage is usually viewed as being taller than another opponent. Due to Barea's heroics, though, the Mavericks were able to have the height advantage by being bigger with Tyson Chandler and the height advantage of being smaller with Barea.

Barea was able to come in off the bench injecting energy into the second unit and giving the Mavericks a morale boost and defying the laws of physics.

He wound his way past some of the most athletic beasts in the game in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, taming them with a theatrical tear drop that resulted in the Mavericks fanbase springing joyfully out of their chairs in utter disbelief.

Chandler was able to mask the defensive deficiencies which Nowitzki has always displayed, which allowed him to do what he does best, which is score. Chandler also provided tremendous leadership and was renowned by many as the reason for the Mavericks' dazzling drive to the Finals.

It has become fairly obvious in the first two games of the 2011-12 NBA season how much the Mavericks miss Chandler's inside presence, with Chandler totaling six blocks in his first game with New York to Brendan Haywood's zero in two games with the Mavericks so far.

Both of the players mentioned above were so interwoven into the Mavericks team fabric, that without them, it's almost impossible to see them make it back to the NBA Finals, let alone hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy in the air for the second year in a row.