With the addition of the marvelous green "Hardwood Classics" uniforms, the Dallas Mavericks have quite a few looks to choose from this season. Because everyone knows that uniforms correlate with in-game performance, I thought I would look and see how the Mavericks have performed in each uniform. The All-Star Break seemed like a good time to take a look back and do just that.
Home whites
Average score: |
103-100 |
Average FG%: |
44.1% |
Average 3P%: |
35.6% |
Average FT%: |
80.3% |
Average rebounds: |
44.2 |
Average assists: |
20.9 |
Average blocks: |
2.9 |
Average steals: |
7.7 |
Average turnovers: |
13.1 |
The Mavs have worn their white home uniforms 21 times, more than any other of their looks. These are Dallas's winningest jerseys so far this season, to go along with their largest overall average margin of victory. Dallas has also played the most overtime games in white (4) -- although they've had at least one game go to overtime in each different uniform.
Road blues
Average score: |
96-103 |
Average FG%: |
41.9% |
Average 3P%: |
28.9% |
Average FT%: |
77.5% |
Average rebounds: |
44.1 |
Average assists: |
21.7 |
Average blocks: |
3.4 |
Average steals: |
5.6 |
Average turnovers: |
12.3 |
These are easily the Mavs' worst uniforms, performance-wise. Especially from beyond the arc. Who knew that such a pretty shade of blue could be so detrimental to long-range shot accuracy? Even worse -- Dallas takes more threes in the road uniforms than any other uniform.
Maybe this is a sign from the basketball gods that Dallas should switch back to green full time.
Skyline uniforms
Average score: |
104-103.8 |
Average FG%: |
46.8% |
Average 3P%: |
38.9% |
Average FT%: |
76.3% |
Average rebounds: |
40.1 |
Average assists: |
21.5 |
Average blocks: |
4.3 |
Average steals: |
5.9 |
Average turnovers: |
12.1 |
The Mavs started off really hot in these uniforms, winning the first four games they played in them. Unfortunately, they've cooled off recently, losing the last three games. The most notable thing here is the margin of victory--overall the Mavs only outscored their opponents by 0.2 points. Given the 7-5 record, this isn't terribly surprising, but there were more than a few blowouts in these jerseys, including a 110-98 whipping of Houston early in the season and the more recent 20-point beat-down handed out by the Warriors.
Also, these are the uniforms for shooting threes. Dallas shoots 10 percentage points better from three in navy than in blue.
Hardwood Classic uniforms
Average score: |
99-98 |
Average FG%: |
43.7% |
Average 3P%: |
31.6% |
Average FT%: |
77.9% |
Average rebounds: |
40.6 |
Average assists: |
21.8 |
Average blocks: |
3.8 |
Average steals: |
8.2 |
Average turnovers: |
10.3 |
So Dallas has only worn these six times. Small sampling size, but the most interesting takeaway is that these are apparently the turnover uniforms. The Mavs get over 8 steals a game in these (which is only slightly better than the 7.7 they average in the home whites), while keeping turnovers down to just over 10 a game. The three-point shooting is pretty bad here, though at least not sub-30%.
Overall, it looks like rebounding, assists, and blocks are all pretty consistent between uniforms. Dallas averages right between 40 and 44 rebounds, around 21 assists, and 3-4 blocks per game regardless. The three-point shooting seems to vary the most between uniforms. The Mavs apparently shoot better and score more in either very light or very dark colors. (Or you know, maybe uniform color doesn't actually correlate with on-court performance--I guess that's possible, but where's the fun in thinking like that?)
So for the more superstitious out there, should the Mavs scrap the road blues? If so, would you go back to the navy of the '00s or the green of the '90s? Comment below, and let us know?
Author's note - Shout out to Jay Appaji (@Jappaji4) for his assistance in figuring out which uniforms were worn for which games.