Top 5 shooters on the Dallas Mavericks' roster for the 2021-22 NBA season
The Dallas Mavericks' last two NBA campaigns have ended in a first-round exit to the LA Clippers. They will look to become one of the better teams in the Western Conference this time around.
Head coach Jason Kidd already has a superstar in Luka Doncic, but he needs to surround the Slovenian with talented players to elevate the team. Even though Doncic has already signed his rookie extension, the Mavericks need to make longer playoff runs if they want to secure him as a lifetime Mav.
With Doncic being such a ball-dominant player, the best way to build a team around him is to surround him with shooters. The Dallas Mavericks front office has done a decent job in this regard. Here are the five best shooters they currently have on their roster.
#5 Kristaps Porzingis, Dallas Mavericks, Power Forward
Kristaps Porzingis has become one of the best three-point shooting bigs in the NBA. He stands at 7 foot 3 inches, making his shots very hard to contest.
Since joining the Dallas Mavericks in 2020, Porzingis has attempted 6.6 threes a game and has made 36% of them.
For his career, the 26-year-old is a 36% shooter from three on 5.1 attempts. In his first season with the Mavericks, he struggled as a three-point shooter. He did tear his ACL the previous season, which contributed to his shooting struggles.
Despite his injury issues, last season might have been one of the best shooting campaigns of Porzingis' career. He made 38% of his threes while taking six a game. This is the second-highest percentage in his career.
If Porzingis can expand on what he did in previous regular seasons and add more to his overall game, the Dallas Mavericks could also improve a great deal.
#4 Dorian Finney-Smith, Dallas Mavericks, Forward
Dorian Finney-Smith is on the Dallas Mavericks to provide two things: three-point shooting and defense.
The 28-year-old was not a good three-point shooter in the first three seasons of his career, shooting 30% on 2.8 attempts. However, something must have clicked in the 2019 offseason because he has shot 39% on 4.6 attempts in the two campaigns since then.
Finney-Smith has so far been the perfect 3-and-D player to deploy alongside Doncic in the last two seasons. In those seasons, most of his shots were from the three-point line. He only attempted 7.5 shots a game.
The 2020-21 season was Finney-Smith's best three-point shooting campaign of his career, as he took five threes a game and made 39% of them. It should be noted that 97% of those threes were assisted.