- The Nerlens Noel deal has been more of a disappointment than an outright mistake, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News writes. Sherrington cites how little the Mavs had to give up for the big man as the reason why the trade isn’t as disastrous as, say, the Rajon Rondo deal back in 2014.
- Even though they’re not a contender, the Mavericks remain reluctant to sell off veterans like Wesley Matthews, J.J. Barea, and Devin Harris, writes Deveney. Nerlens Noel will be on the trade block though.
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The Carolina Panthers are up for sale and while many with interest in owning an NFL franchise will line up to try and take the reins of the team, don’t expect Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to be among them.
“Not interested at all in any NFL franchise,” Cuban tells Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. The Shark Tank star later added, “Why would I buy an NFL team if I think the league is in decline?”
In order to buy an NFL team, Cuban would be required to sell the Mavericks (per NFL rules). That’s not something that’s likely to happen anytime soon.
“There’s no team I would want other than the Mavericks, certainly no football team in the universe,” Cuban said. “There’s not even a close second.”
“I love the Mavs. I love Dallas. I mean, Charlotte’s a great city, but there’s nothing I don’t like here — other than losing right now. I would never turn my back on the city of Dallas.”
Cuban has been critical of the NFL’s future with regard to players’ safety and he believes buying a team would go against his strong stance on the sport.
“Like I’ve always said, Dallas has given me so much. And what am I going to say to my son and his friends or my daughter and her friends: ‘Oh, yeah: Football’s dangerous for you, but I bought a football team…I know I’m a hypocrite from time to time, but I really, really, really try not to be,” Cuban added.
- Antonius Cleveland, who had been on a two-way contract with the Mavericks, was waived today after suffering a left ankle injury on Monday. According to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com (Twitter link), Cleveland will require surgery on that ankle. Still, the news isn’t all bad for the rookie swingman — he’ll rehab at the Mavs’ facilities, he will continue to be paid by the team until he gets healthy, and he’s a candidate to rejoin the club at some point, per head coach Rick Carlisle.
The Mavericks have completed a series of roster moves, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived center Jeff Withey from their 15-man roster. Additionally, Dallas has made a change to its two-way players, waiving swingman Antonius Cleveland and signing guard Kyle Collinsworth to a two-way contract to replace him.
Withey, 27, signed a non-guaranteed two-year deal with the Mavericks back in August, and earned a spot on the team’s regular season roster. However, he didn’t play much in Dallas, appearing in 10 games and logging just 39 total minutes this season. The Mavs will assume a cap hit of about $588K for Withey if he goes unclaimed on waivers.
Meanwhile, Dallas also swapped in a new player on a two-way contract — Johnathan Motley will remain in one of the team’s two slots, while Collinsworth will replace Cleveland in the other. Collinsworth has spent the last two seasons with the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate. In 18 games this season, the 6’6″ guard has averaged 11.4 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 4.8 APG, and 1.7 SPG.
As for Cleveland, he had spent a good portion of this season with the Mavericks, having appeared in 13 games for the team, but with his 45-day limit approaching, Dallas has apparently decided to cut him rather than to convert his contract into a standard NBA deal. Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News notes (via Twitter) that Cleveland suffered an ankle injury on Monday night, so it’s possible the Mavs could bring him back when he gets healthy.
The Mavs now have 16 players under contract — two on two-way deals and 14 on standard NBA pacts.
- Seth Curry still isn’t close to making his 2017/18 season debut for the Mavericks, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. As Sefko relays, head coach Rick Carlisle said this weekend that Curry’s leg injury will continue to sideline him until sometime in the new year. The Mavs guard, who will be a free agent in 2018, has missed the entire season so far with a left tibia stress reaction.
The Mavs have benefited from the across the board contributions of role players Dwight Powell and Yogi Ferrell this season, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes. The pair have thrived as much-needed team worker bees.
“[Powell] always gives us amazing energy,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of his 26-year-old backup center. “He is just so into the team and winning. Guys like him, you just can’t get enough of.”
In 17.9 minutes per game, Powell has posted 6.2 points and 5.3 rebounds, a stat line that works out to be 12.5 and 10.5 per-36. Ferrell, in contrast, has served the Mavs out of the backcourt, stepping up noticeably well as a spot starter for Dennis Smith Jr.
In five starts with the lottery pick sidelined, Ferrell has averaged 12.5 points and 4.8 assists per game for the Mavs.
The prime years of Dirk Nowitzki‘s career are behind him, but he’s not ready to ride off into the sunset quite yet. While Nowitzki said he doesn’t want to set anything in stone quite yet, he’s leaning toward playing at least one more season beyond this one, writes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News.
“I’m not going to say 100% I’ll be back — but it’s looking like it,” Nowitzki told Sefko. “I feel fine so far. I’ve played every game. I’d love to play all 82. That would be amazing at [age] 39. We’ll see how the body feels. But so far, it’s been fine.”
Nowitzki, who will turn 40 in June, signed a two-year, $10MM contract with Dallas this past offseason. That deal includes a team option for 2018/19, so the decision on whether or not the longtime Maverick will be back is technically up to the team. However, owner Mark Cuban has expressed hope that Nowitzki will return for 2018/19 to set the record for most years spent with one team, and it’s not as if Cuban would decline that option.
Although 2017/18 may not be Nowitzki’s last season, he did stress that his current deal “will be for sure my last contract,” according to Sefko. So if he returns for next season, it figures to be his farewell tour.
Having started all 28 games for the Mavs so far this season, Nowitzki is averaging 11.1 PPG and 5.6 RPG with a .443/.416/.919 shooting line.
The Mavericks are in a curious position as an NBA franchise, suspended in a unique limbo between rebuilding and (sorta) contending. Thank Dirk Nowitzki for most of it, as team owner Mark Cuban seems to have insisted that the Mavs field a semi-competent roster in the future Hall of Famer’s final years.
While the club has seemingly acknowledged the writing on the wall and started to amass long-term building blocks – most recently, ninth overall pick Dennis Smith Jr. – it’s unlikely that the Mavs will fully give into an outright rebuild so long as Nowitzki is on board for 2018/19 (which, for reasons discussed below, we’re going to assume to be the case).
Seth Curry, PG, 27 (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $6MM deal in 2016
Curry has yet to see the court this season on account of a leg injury that may now require surgery. Even at full health, however, it’s not likely that Curry would have siphoned minutes away from either lottery pick Dennis Smith Jr. or several other niche players in Dallas’ backcourt rotation, a reality that casts doubt on his future with the franchise.
Devin Harris, SG, 35 (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $17MM deal in 2014
While Harris has produced admirably off the bench for the Mavs, it doesn’t make sense for a team attempting to usher in a new era to retain a 35-year-old reserve in an already crowded backcourt. Harris could be a sneaky value add for a contender late in the free agency process next summer.
Yogi Ferrell, PG, 25 (Up) – Signed to a two-year, $2MM deal in 2017
Ferrell carved out a role for himself as a rotation piece on the Mavs last season but he probably won’t garner much interest as a restricted free agent next summer given that his ceiling seems somewhat capped. Still, he could provide solid long-term value in Dallas if the team does decide to part ways with Curry and/or Harris.
Wesley Matthews, SF, 31 (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $70MM deal in 2015
The Mavs poached Matthews from an elite Trail Blazers squad hopeful that the swingman’s two-way game would help keep their aging core relevant in the West. Through three seasons, Matthews has posted a relatively uninspiring 12.9 points per game but will almost certainly return to Dallas considering how unlikely it would be for him to exceed his $19MM 2018/19 player option on the open market.
Josh McRoberts, PF, 31 (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $23MM deal in 2014
The Mavs absorbed the final year of McRoberts’ contract over the summer, yielding a future second-round pick from the Heat in the process. Considering that the 30-year-old has been sidelined with a knee injury since joining the organization, he’ll be hard-pressed to earn a significant contract after this season. McRoberts may be able to fill a rotation spot somewhere – maybe even in Dallas – but he’ll presumably have to do so on a minimum salary.
Salah Mejri, C, 32 (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $3MM deal in 2015
While Mejri has played a modest role for the Mavs in each of the past three seasons, he won’t command much on the open market as a 32-year-old free agent with career averages south of five points per game.
Nerlens Noel, C, 24 (Up) – Signed to a one-year, $4MM deal in 2017
It’s been less than a year since the Mavs plucked a disgruntled Noel away from the Sixers, but any notion that the team was eager to include the 23-year-old in their long-term plans has quickly faded. It’s hard to picture Noel commanding the big money he supposedly aspired to land last summer but even harder to picture him back in Dallas next season after how head coach Rick Carlisle has handled his minutes so far this season. Realistically the 2016 lottery pick’s value falls much higher than his $4MM qualifying offer and, once the free agency dominoes start falling next summer, he should find a team happy to throw him a more significant long-term offer.
Dirk Nowitzki, PF, 40 (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $10MM deal in 2017.
Nowitzki has said that his decision (yes, his decision, even though it’s formally and contractually the team’s) will be based on how he feels over the course of this season. For what it’s worth, Cuban hopes to see him return and thinks there’s good chance that he does so in order to break the record for most seasons with one franchise.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Once Mavericks center Nerlens Noel recovers from thumb surgery, he may see increased playing time in an attempt to build his trade value, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. Noel had fallen out of the rotation before the procedure, which was conducted over the weekend. He is expected to be sidelined three to six weeks.
Noel has played just 18 games and is averaging 12.5 minutes per night as Dallas tries to work out playing time for all its big men. Noel’s salary is a little less than $4.19MM on an expiring contract, and Sefko notes that he won’t provide much cap relief for any team that might trade for him. Jean-Jacques Taylor of The Morning-News suggests that the most the Mavericks can hope for in return is a second-round pick.
- Mavericks guard Seth Curry, who hasn’t played yet this season because of a stress fracture in his left leg, could be a long way from returning, Sefko writes in a separate story. Curry called it a “couple week by couple week situation” when he talked to reporters before Tuesday’s game. “The path I’m on right now, the MRI shows it’s gotten a little better,” he said. “But there’s a chance [he could need a procedure]. It’s a tricky situation and hard for me to say. It’s very frustrating. Recovery-wise, I get out there and work out and feel OK, and it’ll bother me the next day.”