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The Athletic decided to look into Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison's claim of “defense wins championships,” giving him a big reality check in the process.
NBA writer Mark Vorkunov researched how the last 20 NBA championship teams fared on defense over the last 20 years. Starting from the 2004-05 season, he put together an average on how successful the teams did on that side of the ball.
“Over the last 20 NBA seasons, there’s been a slight change in the makeup of championship teams. From 2004-05 through 2014-15, eight of the 11 title teams had a defense that was higher ranked than its offense. Since 2015-16, just two of the eight champs have had a higher-ranked defense than offense, with one team finishing fifth in both categories,” Vorkunov said.
“Every title-winning team from 2005-15 had a top-10 defense; the average rank in defensive rating for those teams that season: 4.5. That’s changed slightly over the last decade; the Golden State Warriors won a ring in 2018 with the 11th-best defense, and the Denver Nuggets won two years ago with the No. 15 defense in the league. The average rank in defensive rating for title teams since 2016: 6.6.”
What's next for Nico Harrison, Mavericks
Only time will tell if Nico Harrison's “Defense wins championships” mantra comes to fruition within the next three years. However, year one ended up going down in flames.
After trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, the Mavericks suffered numerous injuries in the backcourt and frontcourt. Davis missed time, Kyrie Irving went down for the year, and Daniel Gafford was out until April while others missed significant time.
The lack of continuity and consistency in the rotations ended up damaging Dallas' prospects throughout the second half of the season. They even flirted with missing the play-in tournament entirely until the Phoenix Suns lost too many games to qualify for it.
They ended the year with a 39-43 record, beating the Sacramento Kings in the 9-10 matchup before losing to the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth and final playoff seed.
Year two will be interesting for Harrison and the Mavericks, knowing they have plenty of work to do in the offseason. However, if they want to compete for a title, they will need Irving to be fully healthy when he returns while surrounding Davis with the best talent possible. Only then would the team be able to showcase their true ceiling with Harrison's vision intact.
