Friday, July 11, 2008

Maverick News: Summer Squad & Roster Moves

It's the moment I have been waiting for...the Dallas Mavericks begin playing again tonight!
...Well, sort of. The Dallas Mavericks summer team begins play in Sin City tonight against the LA Clippers. No, Baron Davis will not be there. Neither will Dirk, J-Ho, Jet, or the rest of the elite. But new Mavericks Shan Foster and Gerald Green will be on hand, along with 13 others who are trying to score a nod on the Mavs roster.
You can read all about everything Mavs Summer League here.

Breaking news here from DallasDedicated: It was just announced today that the Mavs front office have decided to re-sign Antoine Wright, as well as offering two summer league players, James Singleton and Keith McLeod, a guaranteed roster spot on the main Maverick squad.

Antoine Wright showed a lot of promise last year, and the ex-Aggie is wasting no time. He has already arrived in Vegas to work out with Diop in front of Coach Carlisle. McLeod and Singleton are already there, as part of the summer league team. Wright will try to be an active man on the SG/SF rotation that includes new-Mav Gerald Green.


Keith McLeod, who played for Carlisle two years ago in Indiana, is trying to show off his skills in summer league and hopefully move ahead of JJ Barea for the permanent backup point guard role behind Kidd. Scouts have praised him for his defensive-mindneness, which is very important to this Mavs team. Dallas has been beat by far too many point guards when it matters (see Davis, CP3, Wade).


James Singleton played in Spain last year and previously with the Clippers. He is still a young man at 27, and has some decent size at 6-8. His athletic ability and strong hustle makes him this year's "project", like what Bass was last year.
“I do the little things,” Singleton said. “If you need an extra possession or you need to guard a bigger 3 or a more agile 4 or if you need a guy to switch on a point guard on a pick-and-roll, I can do it. In the West we have some great guards in Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant – I’m able to switch out on those guys and give the team versatility in different areas.”

That leaves the Mavs with only one roster spot left, which makes this a tricky situation. Rumors have been flying around that the Mavs might try to trade Jones and/or George to get a swingman, but Shan Foster may be able to fit that role. There are also many free agents still available, but the rumored-to-be-pursued Eddie Najera just signed with New Jersey. We have no more money to spend, we have a great draft pick out of "Suga Shan", as well as NCAA's leading scorer the previous two years in Reggie Williams (both on the summer roster). The roster is now younger and more athletic. Unfortunately though, no big names have been added (unless you count Diop as a big name.) We here at DallasDedicated think that the final roster spot should go to Shan Foster. He is what the Mavs need, and quite frankly, he deserves it. (More details on Foster can be found from a previous DD column A Night For The Future).



We will see how this all shapes up as the Mavs of Summer take the court tonight in Vegas at 9pm. Patrick and I will give you our shared opinions on what the Mavs should do this weekend after watching tonight and Sunday's game. See you then!

--ND

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You really need some Rockets news here....the Mavs are dead-

Houston Hart