3 things to watch for as the Mavericks open the preseason against the Thunder

Basketball is back for the Dallas Mavericks as they open their 2022 preseason schedule with a matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

Not much is know right now about who is and isn’t playing, but Mavericks coach indicated Luka Doncic would not play in this one, to help save his legs after a recent Eurobasket run with the Slovenian national team. The Thunder are about to start a season that had so much potential, but then their second overall pick from the 2022 draft Chet Holmgren suffered a season ending injury to his foot during the offseason.

This should still be a preseason game, with the Thunder still possession an interesting collection of talent and the Mavericks with some lineup and rotation questions to answer. Here’s what we’re watching.

Does the Josh Green hype train take off?

I mentioned this in my preseason primer, but this really does feel like the third year forward’s preseason. After a couple years slowly developing, the stars might align for Green in 2022.

He finally got a full offseason after the disjointed COVID seasons, the Mavericks have a hole in the rotation for a backup wing, and the team needs any extra ball handling juice it can get. Green could theoretically fill both those needs, if he can just pay off on the promising talent he has occasionally shown in the past two seasons.

With most of the Mavericks roster filled with veterans that don’t have much to prove, this will be Green’s chance to show off a little bit, hopefully.

Meet new Maverick Christian Wood

The Mavericks most highly touted offseason move, trading for center Christian Wood, should get shown off for the first time in a Dallas uniform, barring any unforeseen lineup changes.

Wood is coming off the bench in Dallas, but that shouldn’t damper any excitement. Wood is a big man with legit offensive skills and while his defense will need a lot of work, the preseason will be a fun appetizer for hopefully what is to come later in the season.

Have fun

Preseason basketball is, for the most part, meaningless. It’s mainly for vets to get their legs under them, young players to get some more floor time, and training camp invites trying to earn a job somewhere in the league. It can get a little boring and aimless at times, so just enjoy the fact that Mavericks basketball is back.

How to watch

The game tips off at 7 p.m. CST and the only way to watch will be a live stream on the Dallas Mavericks website, mavs.com.

You can listen to all that and more on our latest episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pocketcasts, or Castbox.

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