02-28-2026, 08:57 AM
(02-28-2026, 08:00 AM)Winter Wrote: I'm not convinced that's true. I'm not sure the FO saw Tyus Jones as anything but a two-week filler. I think they're trying to figure out the number of Nembhards games to be played, maybe massaging some other contracts, and Branham was not an answer to anything.
None of this feels like it caught the Mavs by surprise.
About Jones himself. I'm not bothered by a few extra dollars to see if Jones was useful for next year. For an NBA team the diff was couch cushion money, maybe about $650K. Their analysis previously was that he can play, and they have needed PG help. In fact, Nico wanted him in the summer over DAR (fwiw). He signed instead with ORL (more money than DAL could offer), where he was relegated to limited minutes (which seems odd, unless they decided too late that he wasn't their answer after all), and it's informative that he sucked when he did play.
I am more bothered that he sucked in PHX, the Mavs think he is a catch, he sucks in ORL, they still think he is a catch, and only when he sucks in DAL can they figure out that he truly sucks. That doesn't say good things about the current Mav player-evaluating corps. Ugh.
About a Nemby connection. If this had anything to do with Nembhard's eligibility, the FO still is being run by roster-management dolts, because there's no mystery on how to get games for Nemby. He still has 6 NBA games left iiuc. They aren't using them. They are actually using him in GL games to work on a few things. His shot is even worse there than in DAL, and he's not very desirable if he can't make 3s. At any time they can convert him to an NBA deal if they want to. But why? He still has NBA eligibility left on his 2-way.
It's possible Nemby doesn't want to convert to an NBA 2-year deal (and if he doesn't, the Mavs have no incentive to just convert him, to pay him more this season). Or maybe his flower has wilted.


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