Dallas' Defense Is Even Better This Season

Much has been made about the Dallas Mavericks losing Tyson Chandler to free agency and how it would hurt their defense and blah blah blah blah blah.

Actually, that has not been the case at all.

We're almost one month into the 2011-12 NBA season and Dallas has the third best defense in the NBA.

The Mavericks are actually better this season than they were last season on the defensive end.

The 2011-12 Mavs allow just 94.2 points per 100 possessions, trailing only the 76ers (92.5) and Bulls (92.7) in defensive efficiency.

The 2010-11 Mavs allowed 102.3 points per 100 possessions and ranked seventh in the NBA. Granted, the addition of Chandler elevated the Dallas D from its 2009-10 showing (103.2, ranking 12th), but by no means does last year's Dallas D compare with what's taking place this season with the defending champs.

And a lot of the credit has to go to the two centers, Ian Mahinmi and Brendan Haywood, who essentially split 41 minutes every game in anchoring the greatest defense in Dallas Maverick history thus far (this 2011-12 squad even blows away the Mavs' D from 2002-03 that had Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz roaming the paint).

Yes, Dirk is hurt. Yes, the offense is struggling. Yes, the 11-7 Mavericks got off to a slow start before winning eight of its last 10 games.

But defensively, this team has been rolling on all cylinders all season long.

Both Haywood (+0.7) and Mahinmi (+1.3) are putting up better defensive plus-minus numbers than Chandler (-1.0) this season, which shouldn't be a surprise since they're all in the same neighborhood defensively over recent years (Mahinmi +1.5, Chandler +1.2, Haywood +0.9).

Together this season, Haywood and Mahinmi are averaging 41.2 minutes per game, 12.8 points, 11.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.1 steals, which is not too far off what Chandler and Haywood averaged together as a tandem last season (41.3 minutes per game, 11.2 points, 13.0 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 0.6 steals).

The Mavs are essentially rebounding the same as last year (recovering 49.9 percent of all rebounds in 2011-12; 50.4 percent in 2010-11), while defending at historic rates.

I'd be remiss not to point out that newcomers Delonte West, Vince Carter, back-from-injury Rodrigue Beaubois and Brandan Wright have also contributed mightily to Dallas' defense, putting up the best defensive numbers on the team, other than the two centers.

That being said, we all must look at this Dallas Mavericks' team differently than we've have in years past. This Dallas squad wins with D, not just with Dirk.

The tenets and philosophies instilled by Rick Carlisle are now fully taking form and we are seeing a D that is comparable to Carlisle's Ben Wallace-led Pistons from 2002-03 or Ron Artest-led Pacers from 2003-04.

If you want to see even more numbers that back up that assessment, check out Dallas' opponents point totals in all the games of January thus far: 87, 81, 91, 89, 70, 60, 76, 85, 86, 81, 71, 89, 87, 82 ... You have to go back to December 29, 2011 to find a game where Dallas gave up 92 points or more!

Mavs owner Mark Cuban not only saved himself $26 million in salary and luxury-tax penalties this season by letting Chandler go to New York, he saved hundreds of millions in future years by not signing Chandler into seasons where the luxury-tax penalties become more punitive.

By letting Chandler walk, Cuban and President of Basketball Operations Donn Nelson kept their Summer 2012 salary cap space available, allowing them to pursue a max-contract player if they so choose (Dwight Howard? Deron Williams?).

Yes, Nelson did all of this while keeping his center position relatively stable, improving team defense and giving Carlisle's champs a good enough shot to defend its title this postseason. For that alone, Nelson deserves Executive of the Year consideration.

And if Dallas keeps playing this devastating defense all season long, we're all going to have to start considering Maverick players as All-Defensive candidates.

Yeah, I realize that's kind of hard to fathom.

But it's starting to look like this Haywood Mahinmi character might just be a pretty good two-headed candidate for the job.