Grading the Dallas Mavericks after their 120-109 win over the Spurs

After an off season in which the Mavericks bolstered their roster with an eye on making another deep run, it was finally time to witness the regular season debuts of new players and familiar faces. Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, Spencer Dinwiddie and Naji Marshall joined the usual suspects in their season and home opener against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night, which Dallas won 120-109.

Almost a year ago to the day, the Mavericks spoiled Victor Wembanyama’s NBA debut and ultimately swept the season series against their division rival. The Spurs added veteran leadership in the Off Season with newcomers Chris Paul and former Mav Harrison Barnes, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Mavericks in this one.

It’s time to recap and grade each player’s performance, but since this is the first in a recurring series, we need to establish the basic ground rules.

• Grades will be given to all Mavericks players who logged meaningful game time/stats.
• The grading system will use an alphabetical scale of: D, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, A+ (for those who prefer a numeric scale, you’ll notice you can conveniently use these ten letter grades as a 1-10 scale if you prefer – we love math people, too).
• There is no F grade. It would defy credibility to categorize anyone capable of making an NBA roster as a “fail,” no matter how bad a game they had.
• Players will generally be graded to scale. In other words, a Luka A+ is going to look different than a Dwight Powell A+ for obvious reasons.
• If a player logged mostly garbage time and had few or no stats, they will not be included or otherwise given an N/A instead of a grade.

Without further ado, here are the grades for your Dallas Mavericks after the season opener.

Luka Doncic

Luka did not play in the Preseason and it clearly showed. His legs were not under him, his rhythm has yet to be established and his shooting suffered. Going 9 for 25 overall from the field and 4 for 11 on threes wasn’t pretty, yet he was still only two assists shy of a triple-double. 10 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal were nice to see while the shot was coming along, but 4 turnovers further underscored the idea that the best Luka is yet to come. Still, leading all scorers on a “bad” night is pretty impressive and he played a key part in 12 – 0 run during the second half. Luka will likely prove to be one of the trickiest to grade game to game since he operates on a completely different scale than most players. Tonight was a perfect example. He was not his best, yet literally hundreds of players in the league would love to have his stat line from this game.

Grade: B+

Kyrie Irving

Irving displayed similar shooting struggles as Luka, and even shot a worse percentage overall, but on fewer shots. He did however shoot very well from three (42.9%). He also had 2 steals, 1 block and 0 turnovers. In an otherwise mundane game for his standards, Kyrie had two very memorable defensive plays. The first was when he hounded Tre Jones full court and eventually forced a turnover. The second was when he got a steal, was tripped up, went to the ground yet still made a nice pass from his back.

Grade: B

Klay Thompson

Thompson was the second leading scorer of the game with 22, behind only Luka (28). He looked completely calm on offense, letting the game come to him. He looked locked in on defense, as though he were on a mission to prove a point. Along with his 22 points, he had 7 rebounds and 3 steals. He also hit 6 of 10 threes, giving him the Mavericks record for made threes in a player’s debut. I didn’t expect I’d be giving out top grades too often, especially in the first game of the season, but Thompson’s performance was magical tonight and if you break a record like he did, you get your flowers.

Grade: A+

PJ Washington

Washington had a quietly solid night. Like most of the team, his shooting left something to be desired, however he still dropped in 11 points to go with 6 boards, 2 assists and 1 steal. Other than a shooting percentage that we’d all like to see a bit higher, he did what the team needed him to do, and did it in relatively limited minutes (26). Being on the receiving end of an insane Luka backwards-behind-the-head pass to convert one of two made threes on the night gets some bonus points as well.

Grade: B+

Dereck Lively II

Although it wasn’t the dunk-fest we’ve gotten used to seeing, Lively was great off the bench tonight. He hit 6 of 8 shots for 15 points, had 11 rebounds (4 offensive) and an impressive 6 assists. If you could find anything to complain about in his stat line, it would be the lack of blocks. Regardless, for 27 minutes of play, he was highly efficient and it’s probably fair to say he got the better of Wembanyama tonight on an overall side-by-side comparison.

Grade: A

Naji Marshall

Marshall was on the struggle bus in his Mavericks debut. He hit only 1 of 6 shots and had 1 rebound and 3 assists. Aside from his shooting, he didn’t do anything particularly bad, but he didn’t really contribute much to the overall success, as he was a minus 7 for the game. An unsung bright spot is his ability to bring up the ball and direct the offense a bit, giving both Luka and Kyrie a break.

Grade: C

Quentin Grimes

Another new face, Grimes had an eerily similar stat line to Marshall, only he had 0 assists. His plus/minus at plus 11 was significantly better than Marshall’s, but it was an otherwise unremarkable night for the newcomer.

Grade: C+

Daniel Gafford

Gafford did what Gafford does. In a starting role, he brought energy and intensity with 9 points and 6 rebounds in only 18 minutes of play. His 50% from the field seems like an underachievement by his lofty standards, but he otherwise had a nice night. If he continues to log backup-type minutes and gives this level of production, no one is going to complain. He had a few too many fouls (5), but was in the right spots throughout the night and played his role well. He gave us some eye candy with a nice dunk and calmly knocked down two free throws he earned after enduring a Flagrant 1.

Grade: B+

Maxi Kleber

Kleber didn’t get much burn, but similar to Gafford, he did everything he was supposed to while he played. Although his stats don’t jump off the page, he lead all players in plus minus with a +18, despite only playing for 15 minutes. He canned a nice three and pulled down 4 rebounds. For the highlight reel, he had an amazing block, virtually appearing out of nowhere to keep two points off the Spurs’ side of the scoreboard.

Grade: B+

Jaden Hardy

Not too long ago I picked Jaden Hardy as my X Factor, and he seemed intent on proving me correct for at least one night. Hardy showed his microwave scoring ability as he knocked down 50% of his shots, with all 3 of his makes coming from three-point land. He also hit both of his free throws en route to 11 points. His two assists were negated by two turnovers, but he at least showed he was about more than just scoring. He also added 1 block for good measure. It was a very nice game for him overall.

Grade: B+

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