After a whole month of thrilling, nail-biting, fee-agent moves and signings, the 2014 NBA free agency dust has finally settled. In the end, it was a summer full of drama and surprises. LeBron James decided to come home to Cleveland while Carmelo Anthony resigned with the Knicks. So who were the winners this offseason?
Several teams have the right to claim that they were able to make the right moves in the free-agent talent scramble. The Cavaliers were clearly the biggest Winners and Daryl Morey could make the case that he is the luckiest owner in the NBA. And The Dallas Mavericks are one of the teams that can claim a level of success this offseason. The latest NBA Power Rankings even puts them in the 4th spot.
The Mavs might have failed in landing their top target - Carmelo Anthony - but it still turned out to be a fine offseason in the end. When they won the chicken game with the Rockets for Chandler Parsons, they acquired a 25 year old player who is on the rise and is more versatile than Melo.
Parsons may not be close to Anthony's offensive production but he does bring in a lot of different things on and off the court that Melo doesn't, including making teammates better, a locker room leader, and a glue guy. And with the addition of Rashard Lewis and Richard Jefferson while being able to resign Dirk Nowitzki and Devin Harris in a discount, the Mavs have all the right reasons to feel good about their offseason.
According to a rival coach last week, Dallas, with their recent moves, are in the best position to rival the top 3 teams in the Western Conference - San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers. And the Mavs are even not done yet with their offseason moves as they have 2 roster spots remaining and a $2.7 million salary cap room exception to bring in the likes of Mo Willians or Jameer Nelson to further boslter their roster. And now that their defensive Anchor is back in Tyson Chandler, its hard to dismiss the Mavs chances of at least making it to the Western Conference finals, even for coach Rick Carlisle.
"That's the plan," Carlisle said. "We want to get better and be right back there in that small handful of teams that has a chance. I like our approach and what we've been able to do so far. And there could be some more things happening."
Dallas starting line up in the coming season, which features Ellis, Parsons, Nowitzki, Chandler is one of the best in the league and their bench with Harris, Wright, Crowder, Jefferson, and Lewis, is not that bad either. And when you put in one of the top coaches in the league in Rick Carlisle, Dallas might end up surprising a lot of people like what they did in 2011.
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