What to expect from the Mavericks in 2014-2015 - Small Forwards

With the exit of Shawn Marion to Cleveland, the Dallas Mavericks except that Chandler Parsons, Al-Farouq Aminu and Richard Jefferson be ready to occupy the space left by him. Shawn Marion make a name for himself by being one of the best defenders in the league, capable of guarding any position from guard to center.

PLAYER	MINUTES	POINTS	FG %	REBOUNDS	STEALS	BLOCKS
MARION	31,7	10,4	48,2%	6,5	1,2	0,5
PARSONS	37,6	16,6	47,2%	5,5	1,2	0,4
AMINU	25,6	7,2	47,4%	6,2	1,0	0,5
JEFFERSON	27,0	10,1	45,0%	2,7	0,7	0,2

Looking at last years stats we can understand the importance that Marion had but not completely! Stats don't say everything! We can't measure the defensive efourt that Marion had only looking at his stats, we have to see him play. Marion is one of the best perimeter defenders in the entire league. Now, the Mavs must fight the loss of Marion with numbers, with three new players.

Chandler Parsons, that arrives in Dallas to be the third star, along with Dirk Nowitzki and Monta Ellis. Parsons is going to be a little overpaid according to the production he had in Houston ($46.000.000 in 3 years) but the Mavs are paying for the potencial waiting to be developed. He is the perfect player to be developed by our coach, Rick Carlisle.
Parsons once said:

"I Think Defensively I can get much better"

And that's exactly what we except from Parsons, not that he is a bad defender because he isn't, but we are used to an elite defender in that position and for that, the stack is really high in that particular part of the game.
Ofensively, we have an improvement in Parsons, one of the best players in the league at finishing on fast-breaks, a good 3-point shooter (37,8% from the 3-point line) and he had a amazing average of 6,2 drives per game (more than Shawn Marion and Vince Carter together).
Parsons, in the three years that he had in the league always improved. He increased his minutes, points, rebounds, assists, free throws, PER, assist percentage, usage rate, win shares and free throw percentage.
He is, without a doubt, one versitale player. He can finish, distribute, win rebounds and so on. He is going to have a different role from Shawn Marion and Vince Carter because of that versatility and we can call him a "fill-the-blanks" player because he can do whatever the teams need him to do.

Al-Farouq Aminu is the player with more resemblace to Shawn Marion. If not the top rebounder among small forwards, Aminu is at least in the top 5. He had an average of 6 rebounds in only 25 minutes per game which is really impressive. We can't compare Aminu to a Marion on his prime but we can compare him (with some effort) to a old Marion and maybe we can forget his exit a little bit with this player.

Richard Jefferson arrives in Dallas to be the replacement of Vince Carter (what in my opinion is a very difficult role). We hope that he can have a contribution on the offensive side of the court because in the other end we don't except him to be productive.