The Dallas Mavericks have yet to find a consistent rhythm on offense this season, but are still on pace for 50-plus wins. That they’re still gathering their footing while finding success should be cause for concern for the rest of the league, at least that’s how this week’s Power Rankings Watch sees it.

Luka is still getting his legs under him after no preseason, and Jason Kidd is tinkering with rotations — especially with a handful of early season injuries to the team’s supporting cast. But the Mavericks continue chugging along. It hasn’t been perfect, but there’s enough there to believe in this team in the long term. Here’s where they stand in the watch.

The Athletic

Rank: 6 (Tier 2: In a Good Place)

Last week: 3

Many were expecting the Mavericks to start Lively this season over Gafford. Lively is the better player and the better fit with the starters to start this season; Dallas’ starting unit is getting outscored by 11.5 points per 100 possessions. But Lively allows the Mavericks to dominate second units; he is significantly more valuable against other teams’ reserves than he is against starters (or Gafford against backups). That arrangement worked last spring and helped the Mavericks come out of the West, so they’re not fixing what isn’t broken.

ESPN

Rank: 6

Last week: 4

Coach Jason Kidd has stuck with Daniel Gafford in the starting center role despite the general consensus within the organization that second-year big man Dereck Lively II has a higher ceiling. Kidd has indicated that Lively will get an opportunity to start at some point, but the coaches wanted to avoid the perception that Gafford was getting demoted after he played a critical role in the Mavs’ late-season surge and NBA Finals run. Entering Monday night, Lively was averaging about four minutes per game more than Gafford this season. The Mavs have outscored opponents by 10.2 points per 100 possessions with Lively on the floor and have a minus-6.2 net rating in Gafford’s minutes. — MacMahon

NBA

Rank: 7

Last week: 8

The Mavs haven’t haven’t hit their stride (especially offensively) yet, but they went 3-1 last week, with a big rest-disadvantage win in Minnesota included.

Three takeaways

It’s certainly too early to really believe in the Mavs as a top-10 defensive team, as their numbers have been buoyed by games against the Spurs (who rank 27th offensively), Jazz (30th) and Magic (25th and without Paolo Banchero). They’ve allowed more than 117 points per 100 possessions over their other three games.

One of those other three was Tuesday, when the Wolves registered an effective field goal percentage of 63.0%, the highest mark for a losing team so far this season. The Mavs countered that by committing 10 fewer turnovers (10-20), and they got big 3s from both of their star guards down the stretch to get their fourth straight win in Minnesota (going back to Game 1 of the conference finals).

Luka Dončić is registering a career-low mark for effective field goal percentage (46.9%), having seen big drop-offs both in and outside the paint. But he still scored 32 points in less than 32 minutes against the Magic (who have a top 10 defense) on Sunday.

The Mavs’ five-game homestand (their longest of the season) concludes on Friday with their second of four meetings with the Suns. The first (a 12-point loss in Phoenix) was the Mavs’ worst offensive game of the season thus far (102 points on 98 possessions), even though Dončić scored 40 points in less than 40 minutes.

Bleacher Report

Rank: 6

Last week: 5

The Dallas Mavericks are on pace for 50 wins, and the rest of the league should maybe be a little worried about this being the worst version of this team.

They’ve jumped out to this start, which includes a road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite Luka Dončić being nowhere near hitting his stride.

Through eight games, his averages for points (28.6), rebounds (8.1) and assists (8.1) are down from last season, and he’s shooting just 45.5 percent on twos and 32.9 percent from deep.

All of those marks are likely to creep up over the course of the season, and Dallas will be even tougher to beat because of it.