Mavericks’ Anderson looks to build on last season’s late success

The Mavericks were on life support before being resuscitated by Anderson, who, at the time, was a wide-eye rookie wing player. Now, Anderson is trying to build off that late-season success, starting with Saturday’s preseason opener at 7 p.m. at CenturyLink Center in Bossier City, La., against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Of his performance last season, Anderson said he just wants to “take the good with the good, take the bad and kind of flush it and kind of grow from it. This is another opportunity for me to continue to try to establish myself, not only on my team, but in this league.

The Mavericks were 35-38, had lost 10 of their last 12 games and were in danger of missing the playoffs last season when they inserted Anderson into the starting lineup. The energy and production Anderson provided helped the Mavericks go 7-2 in the final nine games and finish 42-40. They earned the No. 6 playoff seed in the Western Conference.

Coach Rick Carlisle has noticed how much more relaxed Anderson is in training camp this year.

“You can tell he’s a guy that’s a lot more comfortable coming in this year than he was last year as far as the style of play that we have and the style of play in the league,” Carlisle said of the 21st pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. “He’s doing a lot of good things here in camp.

“He’s just got to keep getting stronger, building on his experience, going hard and taking the challenge on defense.”

Anderson dropped about 10 pounds over the off-season, and is down to 228 pounds.

“I was always fast, so I’m about the same speed,” the 6-foot-6 Anderson said. “The weight wasn’t like fat.

“It was a lot of muscle, so I did like a salmon diet. I did salmon a lot for weeks at a time — or some type of fish. I stayed away from carbs.”

Carlisle said Anderson will be part of the rotation.

“He’s a natural leader,” Carlisle said. “He’s got a great personality, he’s energetic and enthusiastic, he’s got a winning personality that’s authentic and that’s really a great thing to have on any roster.

“We need him to be a high-level system player for us this year with a chance to keep getting better each year.”

Among the things Anderson wants to improve is the ability to attack the basket with either hand and utilize the pick-and-roll. He also wants to be able to guard either tall, lanky players or short, quick players.

“There are so many different elements that I can add, there’s so many different elements that I can continue to grow and build on,” Anderson said. “I’m just continuing to try to do what my role is on this team and then I’m just trying to grow.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 7:38 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ Anderson looks to build on last season’s late success."