On Wednesday, exactly one week before the Mavericks open their season at home against Washington, TNT analysts held their annual conference call with NBA reporters.

Being interrogated this year were Reggie Miller and TNT newcomer, Stan Van Gundy.

When it became my turn to ask questions, at the risk of inciting Miller to bombard me with a barrage of 3-pointers, a la Spike Lee, I reminded him that on this very conference call last year he said Dallas was his surprise team in the West and predicted that the Mavericks would make the playoffs.

So what is Miller’s projection for Dallas this season?

“Well,” Miller said with a chuckle. “I was foreshadowing to this year. That’s exactly what I was doing.

“And I’m still sticking with the Dallas Mavericks. Currently I have them in the eighth slot. I had them in the eighth spot last year, but they did have the rash of injuries. Even though Luka was fantastic, having obviously won Rookie of the Year, it just wasn’t enough.

“But I do have them making the playoffs this year as a surprise Western Conference team. ... It’s going to be a difficult Western Conference this year, but I do think they have enough pieces to scratch into the playoffs.”

Fellow analyst Van Gundy is not as bullish about the Mavericks’ playoff chances.

“Look, I think they’re going to be good, but I think with the way Reggie ended it is what my reservation was going to be, not that they’re not going to be a lot better. ... The Western Conference is going to be so difficult that there’s going to be two or three good teams – like good teams – that are not going to make the playoffs and their record is not going to look good.

“And I think [the Mavericks] are going to struggle to get in the playoffs; not because they aren’t good but just because of the depth in the West. So I look at them, New Orleans with that young team, San Antonio, Sacramento on the rise, maybe Minnesota if they can come, and even OKC if they keep their team together which I don’t expect they will.

“I look at possibly six teams fighting for the last playoff spot. So I would say to any of those six teams that the odds are, in my opinion, that they don’t make it -- just because they’ve got to be one out of six.

“But I like their team. I like what they’ve done with it. I even like some of their minor moves. I think they’ve got good depth on the wing. They went out and obviously brought Hardaway over as part of the deal with Porzingis. I liked bringing Seth Curry back. They’ve got some shooting around those guys now. Yeah, I think they can be good, but, man, the West, it’s just every single night it is so difficult. And I think there’s probably seven teams going into the season that people would pick ahead of ‘em, which means you are right in the middle of the pack, at best.”

Added Miller: “Coach, the teams that you mentioned, the Sacramentos, the Minnesotas, the OKCs, Dallas, all those teams, who can separate themselves? Because they’re going to beat each other up, right? The outliers obviously are the Denvers, the Houstons, the Lakers, Clippers – on a nightly basis they’re going to be favored. But it’s those lower teams that are just going to have to battle each game against each other. That’s going to be the tall tale.”

Van Gundy: “I totally agree. Because you’ve got those seven teams ahead of you that’s going to constitute anywhere from 26-to-28 of your games that are going to be tough to win. It’s how many can you win against the teams in that pack?

“And then I think this is going to be big for the teams in the West fighting for position: You’ve got to dominate the East. You can’t drop those games. If you go .500 against the East, you’re going to have trouble getting into the playoffs.”

Naturally, I also asked about the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic-Kristaps Porzingis pairing, and how they rank among the NBA’s so-called dynamic duos in terms of potential.

“The thing this year is, you’re right, the duos. You’ve got Paul George and Kawhi. You’ve got A.D. and LeBron. When they get back obviously Kyrie and Kevin Durant.

“I put Porzingis and Doncic right up there, especially what I’ve seen during preseason. ... I think they have a chance to be great together because both of them, obviously having played international basketball with one another and against one another, they know one another’s similarities.

“So I think this is going to be a fantastic pairing. To me Porzingis has a chip on his shoulder. Because everything I’ve been reading, people wanting to come after him and ‘has the Unicorn lost something?’ People are talking about this being a revenge season for LeBron, but this could be a revenge season for Kristaps, as well.”