Mark Cuban: Mavs can be ‘better than last year’ if one thing happens

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is optimistic about the team he's helped build around Dirk Nowitzki. 

Despite once again missing on the big fish in free agency, the team did manage to acquire Wesley Matthews, Deron Williams, Zaza Pachulia and other proven veteran players to help make another playoff run. 

While there are still plenty of questions about the talent of the roster, the biggest concern is whether the Mavericks can get healthy and then stay healthy. Cuban seems to think that if that can happen, the team can eclipse the 50-win mark they reached last year.  

Here's more from Sean Highkin at ProBasketballTalk: 

“It’s good that Cuban used the “if we’re healthy” qualifier, because that’s a gigantic question mark. In addition to Matthews, Chandler Parsons is coming off microfracture surgery and Deron Williams has been banged up in preseason. 

That’s three giant questions in the starting lineup, and Dirk Nowitzki isn’t getting younger and they downgraded at starting center from Tyson Chandler to Zaza Pachulia. Rookie Justin Anderson showed some promise at Summer League, but the bench has a lot of John Jenkins types who haven’t proven to be productive NBA players. If Dallas is somehow fully healthy, their ceiling is probably somewhere around the eighth seed. But that’s unlikely.”

Mark Cuban on Mavs: "I never make predictions, but I think we can be better than we were last year of we're healthy."

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) October 16, 2015