Mavericks Rumors

Mavericks Sign Terry Larrier

The Mavericks have signed undrafted rookie forward Terry Larrier to their offseason roster, the team announced today in a press release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but a minimum-salary deal with little to no guaranteed money seems likely.

Larrier, who began his college career at VCU, transferred to UConn and averaged 13.8 PPG and 3.9 RPG in two seasons for the Huskies. The 6’8″ forward struggled from inside the arc in his junior year, but improved his 3PT% to .378.

After going undrafted as an early entrant last month, Larrier played for the Grizzlies in the Utah Summer League at the start of July, then joined the Mavericks’ Summer League squad in Las Vegas. He didn’t play major minutes for either team, but Dallas saw enough to give him a spot on its 20-man offseason roster.

Larrier may ultimately end up with the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate.

Mavericks Sign Daryl Macon To Two-Way Contract

JULY 30: The Mavericks have officially signed Macon to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 26: Agent Reggie Brown tells Jackson that Macon is signing a two-year, two-way contract with the Mavericks. Dallas currently has an open two-way slot, with Kostas Antetokounmpo filling the other one.

JULY 25: Rookie free agent guard Daryl Macon appears to have lined up his first NBA contract. According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link), Macon passed on an offer from the Heat and has decided to sign with the Mavericks.

Macon went undrafted last month after averaging 16.8 PPG and 3.9 APG on .447/.421/.875 shooting in his final college season at Arkansas. However, the 22-year-old caught on with the Heat’s Summer League team, appearing in seven total games this month in the Sacramento and Las Vegas leagues.

Macon averaged 7.9 PPG and 4.7 APG in those seven Summer League contests with Miami, making a strong enough impression to earn an Exhibit 10 contract offer from the team. Macon’s agent indicated that his client had received Exhibit 10 offers from at least four NBA clubs and had drawn interest from international teams as well. It seems he has opted for the Mavs’ offer, though the exact terms aren’t yet known.

Assuming Macon finalizes a training camp deal with Dallas, he may get a chance to compete for the team’s 15th roster spot. If he’s waived before the regular season begins, a stint with the Mavs’ G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, could be in his future.

Contract Details: Bolden, Carter, Harrell, Smart

Sixers forward Jonah Bolden has received the largest contract of any rookie second-round pick this summer, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The 36th player taken in the 2017 draft, Bolden spent a season with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel before coming to the NBA. Philadelphia gave him a four-year, $7MM deal with a starting salary of $1.69MM, although the third and fourth seasons are non-guaranteed.

The Nets signed Rodions Kurucs to a similar arrangement, Pincus adds (Twitter link). The 40th pick in this year’s draft, Kurucs will make $1.62MM in his first year and has incentives that could bring the value of his four-year contract up to $6.96MM. The first three seasons are fully guaranteed.

Pincus passes on a few more details about deals signed this summer:

  • Although Jevon Carter was taken 32nd overall, he signed for just the minimum salary over two seasons, less than others in his draft range (Twitter link). However, he received a full guarantee from the Grizzlies on both years. Jalen Brunson, taken at No. 33 by the Mavericks, makes more per season but is locked into a four-year deal (Twitter link). He will receive $1.23MM in his rookie year, with minimum salaries for the next three seasons. The first three years are fully guaranteed. Elie Okobo, the 31st pick, signed a four-year agreement with the Suns that will pay him $1.24MM in his first year, with three seasons at the minimum to follow. Only his first two years are guaranteed, and Phoenix has a team option on the final season (Twitter link).
  • Among the two-way contracts handed out this summer, only four players signed multi-year deals. Kostas Antetokounmpo of the Mavericks, Billy Preston of the Cavaliers, Yuta Watanabe of the Grizzlies and Thomas Welsh of the Nuggets all have two-year agreements (Twitter link).
  • The Clippers will pay Montrezl Harrell $6MM in each season of his two-year, $12MM deal (Twitter link).
  • Celtics guard Marcus Smart has a base salary of $11.16MM in the first year of his new deal, but $500K of likely incentives place the cap hit at $11.66MM. The incentives remain in effect for each season of his four-year contract.

Dwight Powell Sees Luka Doncic As A Difference Maker

  • Dwight Powell believes a playoff spot is realistic for the Mavericks in light of their offseason moves, relays Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. Powell became a big fan of first-round pick Luka Doncic after working out with him during summer league play in Las Vegas. “He’s a great kid and you can tell he knows the game and can shoot,” Powell said. “And he’s bigger than I expected. You hear about some [international] guys saying they are such-and-such a height and they come over and it’s not necessarily the case. But he’s a big boy. He’s going to do well for us. He’s going to have a lot of ability to see the floor for us and take command of the offense when it’s time.”

Nowitzki Doesn't Need No-Trade Clause

  • Mavericks center DeAndre Jordan isn’t expected to show up at the USA Basketball minicamp this week, Dwain Price of Mavs.com tweets. Jordan wasn’t at the camp on Thursday and is likely to remain absent on Friday, Price adds.
  • Mavericks center DeAndre Jordan isn’t expected to show up at the USA Basketball minicamp this week, Dwain Price of Mavs.com tweets. Jordan wasn’t at the camp on Thursday and is likely to remain absent on Friday, Price adds.
  • Dirk Nowitzki‘s one-year contract with the Mavericks does not contain a no-trade clause because he has automatic veto rights over any trade as a One-Year Bird, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Nowitzki signed the $5MM deal this week.

Mavericks Close To Deal With Devin Harris

Devin Harris is close to a one-year deal to return to the Mavericks, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, who adds that Harris and the team are hoping to have a contract finalized by tomorrow.

If Harris returns to Dallas, it will mark his third stint with the franchise. The Mavericks acquired him in a draft night trade with the Wizards in 2004 and kept him until 2008, when they traded him to the Nets. Harris returned to Dallas as a free agent in 2013 and spent five more years with the Mavs before being shipped to Denver in February.

The 35-year-old combo guard appeared in 71 games last season, averaging 8.4 PPG. His addition will give the Mavericks 16 players under contract.

Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News first reported that a reunion between Harris and the Mavs was possible after Yogi Ferrell backed out of a deal with the team.

Yogi Ferrell Discusses Backing Out Of Deal With Mavs

It might be fair to say that not many people back out of deals with Mark Cuban, but over the last four years, he’s had two NBA contracts disintegrate from his hands. DeAndre Jordan backed out of an agreement with the Mavericks during the 2015 offseason – an event that caused a Twitter-Emoji party – and this offseason, Yogi Ferrell had a change of heart after initially making an agreement.

“I decided I needed the chance in my career. With my style of play, I feel like it fits better with the Kings than the Mavericks,” Ferrell said on The Jim Rome Show (h/t SportsDay).

Dallas had reportedly told Ferrell that he’d occupy the backup shooting guard spot when he made the verbal agreement to re-sign with the club. It’s unclear the exact role the Ferrell will now play in Sacramento.

The combo guard will get a bump in salary on the Kings compared to what he would have received in the Mavs’ deal. Sacramento is paying him $6.2MM over two seasons, though the second year is not guaranteed. Dallas’ contract would have paid him $5.3MM over two years with the same stipulation on the second year of the deal.

“Cuban, he was the one that gave me my first opportunity in the league,” Ferrell said. “Coach [Rick] Carlisle is a great coach. When he first put me in, I’ll never forget my first practice he told me I was gonna start. The next day we were playing the Spurs, so everything was coming pretty quickly.

“I was fortunate they were able to put me in the position that they were in. There were no hard feelings.”

Kings Sign Guard Yogi Ferrell

11:02pm: The signing is official, per team press release.

JULY 23, 7:11pm: The second year of the contract is not guaranteed, Tim McMahon of ESPN tweets.

JULY 20, 3:04pm: The Kings and free agent guard Yogi Ferrell have reached an agreement on a deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Ferrell had initially agreed to a two-year contract with the Mavericks, but backed out of that agreement earlier today.

“We felt uncomfortable and will weigh our options,” Ferrell’s agent Cervando Tejeda told Charania at the time.

Sacramento’s deal with Ferrell will be worth $6.2MM over two years, according to Charania (Twitter link). His initial two-year pact with Dallas was said to be worth $5.3MM, with only the first season guaranteed.

While it’s not clear whether Ferrell’s new deal with the Kings will be fully guaranteed, it passes an important threshold — the 25-year-old received a $2.9MM qualifying offer last month, which made him a restricted free agent until the Mavericks withdrew it. His contract with the Kings will allow him to exceed that figure in 2018/19, whereas his initial deal with Dallas wouldn’t have.

Ferrell, a former Indiana standout, appeared in all 82 games for the Mavs last season, averaging 10.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 2.5 APG with a .426/.373/.796 shooting line. In Sacramento, he figures to slot into a backcourt that features De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Frank Mason, and Ben McLemore. Bogdan Bogdanovic may also see time at the two.

Nemanja Bjelica, the only other free agent to back out a verbal agreement this offseason, as far as we know, was also said to be discussing a possible deal with the Kings. It’s probably no coincidence that both Ferrell and Bjelica gravitated to Sacramento as they sought larger paydays — as we outlined earlier this afternoon, the Kings have much more cap flexibility for 2018/19 than any other team. Ferrell’s new deal will only use up a small amount of their $20.5MM in cap space.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mavs Sign Chinese Star Ding Yanyuhang

The Mavericks have signed Chinese swingman Ding Yanyuhang to a contract, according to a team press release.

It’s not immediately clear whether Yanyuhang received a two-way contract, though Dallas opened up one of those slots by trading forward Johnathan Motley to the Clippers on Monday. Dallas also has roster space to give Yanyuhang a standard contract and is currently thin at the wing positions.

The 6’6” Ding has spent the last seven seasons playing professionally for China’s Shandong Golden Stars. In 45 games for Shandong last season, he averaged 26.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.6 SPG and earned his second consecutive Chinese Basketball Association Domestic MVP award.

Ding played on the Mavericks’ summer-league team last year. He was a candidate for a two-way contract with Dallas last summer.

Clippers Acquire Johnathan Motley From Mavs

The Clippers have acquired forward Johnathan Motley in a deal with the Mavericks, Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Both Los Angeles and Dallas have confirmed the transaction via press releases.

The Clippers also received the rights to Renaldas Seibutis in exchange for the draft rights to Maarty Leunen, plus $50K. Motley is on a two-way contract. It’s the first-ever trade involving a two-way contract, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.

Dallas opened up a two-way contract slot via the transaction.

Motley, 23, averaged 8.7 PPG and 4.5 RPG in 11 games with Dallas last season. The 6’10” power forward went undrafted out of Baylor.

Seibutis was a second-round pick by Dallas all the way back in 2007. Siebutis, 33, is a 6’5” guard who currently plays in Lithuania and is also a member of that country’s national team.

Leunen was drafted in the second round by the Clippers in 2008. The 6’9” Leunen, 32, attended the University of Oregon and is currently playing in Italy.