The Mavericks spent last season looking big on paper and strangely ordinary on the glass. That has to change if Dallas wants its new roster to do what it was built to do.
A year ago, the Mavericks were near the bottom of the league in offensive rebounding and second-chance points, finishing 22nd and 24th, respectively. That was true even with a roster that carried plenty of size, including the 6-foot-9 Cooper Flagg at point guard. Now Dallas has doubled down on length and muscle, and the hope is that this weakness finally flips into an advantage.
The context matters. Dallas didn’t exactly spend the whole 2025-26 campaign at full strength.
Dereck Lively II’s season-ending foot surgery, Anthony Davis’ injuries and eventual trade, Daniel Gafford’s uneven availability, and Moussa Cisse’s two-way contract limitations all chipped away at the frontcourt. So the rebounding problems made at least some sense.
Still, they were hard to ignore because the Mavericks’ most-used lineup was made up entirely of players 6-foot-6 or taller.
Even so, the pieces now point in a different direction. Several of the key frontcourt players and big wings from last season are back, and Dallas has added more size on top of that. The result could be a roster that turns one of its weakest areas into one of its best.
That said, height alone doesn’t guarantee anything. The numbers around second-chance points don’t line up neatly with roster size. The Charlotte Hornets and Houston Rockets, the second- and third-best teams in second-chance points, were tied for the fourth-shortest rosters in the NBA.
But the Mavericks have plenty of ways to get creative with their size. Kyrie Irving is back from an ACL tear in 2025, which means Dallas won’t be rolling out a lineup of players 6-foot-5 or taller every night.
Even so, the team can lean into its length in plenty of other ways. Cooper Flagg can slide down to the two.
The 6-foot-8 Zaccharie Risacher can start at shooting guard. And with so much size spread across the roster, Dallas can absorb Irving’s presence and still keep a big look on the floor.
The frontcourt options are even more striking. After drafting the rugged Morez Johnson Jr. with the ninth-overall selection, Dallas can pair him with Gafford, Lively, or Cisse and put out a massive interior group. Santi Aldama hasn’t even been fully factored in yet, and his ball-handling gives Dallas the freedom to use him at the three.
And this isn’t just about body type. Rebounding also comes down to effort and positioning, and Dallas already had players who showed up well in the more specific numbers.
Cisse would have ranked third in the league in offensive rebounding percentage if he had qualified. Gafford finished 24th among 253 qualified players in contested rebound percentage.
Add Lively back into the mix, and the case gets stronger. In his last healthy-ish season in 2023-24, he ranked inside the top 20 in both of those categories. With Johnson, Aldama, and a coach who just won a National Championship while using a roster with rare size, Dallas has the makings of a team that should look a whole lot better on the offensive glass.
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For Dallas, the timing matters as much as the player. The Mavericks have been patient while Biberovic stayed overseas, but his long-awaited arrival also says something about where the organization sees its next layer of depth coming from. In a summer full of teams cashing in on old draft rights, Dallas is clearly signaling that this is the time to turn that planning into a real roster piece, even if the bigger question is how much more comes with it. [Read more 🡒]