Former Mavericks guard and NBA champion J.J. Barea has signed a deal to play for Estudiantes in Spain’s Liga ACB, tweets Marc Stein of the New York Times (Twitter link).
Dallas had signed Barea to a veteran’s minimum deal in November before waiving their longtime guard due to a roster crunch. Owner Mark Cuban indicated the offer was extended to Barea as a reward for his 11 years of service to the club.
Last season with the Mavericks, Barea averaged 7.7 PPG and 3.9 APG in 15.5 MPG across 29 regular-season contests. The 2019/20 campaign was Barea’s return from a torn Achilles tendon, which he suffered back in January 2019.
As Stein notes (via Twitter), Barea still hopes to return to the NBA and could use his time in Spain as a showcase to NBA teams ahead of the May 18 start date for the playoffs, since Estudiantes’ season might end before that.
Even though Dallas will be short-handed tonight without Richardson, Kleber, Powell, DFS, and probably Kristaps as well, the Rockets are missing quite a few players themselves. They’re expecting Wall to play, but they will be resting Oladipo on the second night of a B2B and will also be missing both Wood and Danuel House.
Its crazy that other teams didn’t pick him up first. I’d take him over DJ Augustin if I was the bucks
Totaly agree his experience could help a team like bucks.