Expectations for 23/24 season

[omahen]

I think a lot of things will have to go wrong for it to play out like you are saying.  Its hard to imagine a team with a healthy Luka and Kyrie and a lot of depth behind them will not perform significantly better than last season.  There are so many things that can go right:

Luka and Kyrie playing off each other
Williams taking the next step as a starter
Green having another year of improvement to where he is clearly high level rotational player
Hardy taking another step to where he is clearly 6th man material
Exum showing to be a legit 3rd PG 
Lively showing he already has NBA defensive game and watching his offense slowly develop
Omax hitting just enough 3s to be a useful rotational piece in his first year
Curry rebounding from a bad season to return to one of the best mid volume shooters in the league
Holmes with a change of scenery and his troubles behind him provides quality center minutes
Maxi stays relatively healthy and rebounds from a bad season with less demand put on him
DJJ plays in some fun small ball lineups and becomes a useful rotational piece.  

Not all of these things are going to happen, but odds are a lot of them will.  Even if this team struggles, unless there is no hope in the young guys there will still be stuff to watch from a future perspective.

Odds are also a lot of them will not happen  Mavs biggest problems last season were defense, rebounding and lack of two-way players. I don't think Mavs fundamentally addressed those issues. Not unless (until) guys with potential develop. A bit more details:
- one of Mavs biggest problems last season was rebounding. Mavs are still positionally small, especially at PF and C, and rebounding will remain a problem imho. These are average starter heights in the league: PG 6-3 (Irving 6-2), SG 6-5 (Green and THJ 6-5), SF 6-7 (Luka 6-7), PF 6-8 (GW 6-6), C 6-11 (Powell, Maxi and Holmes 6-10). 
- second problem was Mavs defense. Mavs made very few changes in the top ten of rotation. GW replaced Bullock in the starting line-up and Exum/Holmes replaced Wood and whoever was back-up guard last season in the second unit. The changes were mostly in the deep bench, which basically plays only when injuries happen. Sure, what looks like a deeper team will come handy when injuries happen. But none of the new guys can be considered as all-nba defense guy. That is why I don't think Mavs did enough to hope the defense would be drastically better. Not to mention very questionable coaching schemes with plenty of data from different environments that they don't really work.
- I see Curry fit on this team only without Luka and Irving as you can't play him next to any of them and hope for any kind of defense. So, a very limited role
- injuries happen. You can't hope there will be nothing. Especially since Mavs have several players with long history of unavailability. So, even if Maxi stays healthy, there is great possibility that one or more of the other guys will be out at different times of season
- I don't think Mavs really solved the 3rd PG situation, especially from the point of offense creation. Despite encouraging Exum World cup, I didn't see much of creation in his play. Unfortunately this is a very important role, since Luka and Irving both do miss several games each season. Green World cup and Hardy summer league were not encouraging. The only player with theoretic two-way potential (meaning he can play defense and create to an extent on offense) is Green. I see GW more or less as a spot-up shooter.

Based on this my expecations for this season are low (play-in at best) and I will be glad if I will be proven wrong. But, I will not be holding the players accountable if results are not there. No matter how they look on the court.

Also to note: Luka-Irving team last season was bad, one of worse in the league. They were far from a play-in level team. I think team will be better, but the starting position is really low and where they need to improve to is much higher. A lot of things will need to go right for a substantial improvement. What I do hope for is a decent start and some positive vibes around the team. I hated the negativity in the community last season.