After missing out on their top free agent target for the second straight year, the Mavericks signed a handful of players to multiyear contracts this summer. Among them: Monta Ellis, who has a chance to be one of the more dangerous backcourt scorers to play in Dallas for the last several years. Appearing on the Ben & Skin Show on ESPN 103.3 FM in Dallas, Ellis indicated that he's excited to be in Dallas and is "happy to be a Maverick."
"I chose this place because, of all the options that I had, I felt like this was the best chance and the best opportunity for me to be on that elite state," Ellis said. "They're a great organization. They got a hall of fame player in Dirk [Nowitzki], so without the defense focused mostly on me, I can expand my game a little bit more."
Here's more on Ellis and the Mavs:
- The Dallas Morning News has a few more quotes from Ellis, including his thoughts on playing with Nowitzki and his first impressions upon meeting head coach Rick Carlisle.
- Undrafted rookie Jackie Carmichael played for the Mavs' Summer League squad, and the team would have liked to add him to its training camp roster, but it didn't work out, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. "Unfortunately, I think financially he was looking for a good opportunity overseas," Mavs GM Gersson Rosas said of Carmichael. "So that’s why we couldn’t get him here, but we tried." As our international tracker shows, the former Illinois State forward is ticketed for Spain this season.
- Rosas also tells Price that, after moving to the Mavs from the Rockets' front office earlier this year, he has "got the red out of his system" and is feeling like a Maverick.
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