Five of These Guys Will Get Cut, But Who?

 

After practice on Friday, Dallas Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle commented on the first preseason game against the Pelicans, “I’m not going to talk about anything happening to do with who’s playing and not playing or any of that until tomorrow night. We’re not going to stretch minutes too much, so we’re going to have a chance to look at young guys”

 

A few of those “young guys” we’re already fairly familiar with: Justin Anderson, Dwight Powell, AJ Hammons, etc. Then there are what Carlisle has been consistently referring to as the “seven guys competing for two spots.”  None of them have seen NBA action outside of Summer League, so who are these “seven guys” and who has the best chance to secure one of those spots?

 

 

Jonathan Gibson #3

 

Position: Guard[note]PG/SG or 1/2[/note]
Height: 6’0” [note]That’s a generous six feet[/note]
Age: 28
School: New Mexico State
Last Season: China
Summer: Mavericks Summer League Team[note]Las Vegas[/note]

 

Gibson, who left New Mexico state in 2010, is older than 12 of the 20 Mavericks in camp right now. He’s the only one of the seven with guaranteed money[note]$543,471 then the next two years are non- guaranteed followed by a qualifying offer in 2020, which would make him a restricted FA[/note] heading into the season.

 

After his time at New Mexico State Gibson went undrafted and has spent the last six years playing overseas in Turkey, Israel, Italy, and most notably in China. Gibson averaged 42 points per game in China which was (amazingly) second in the league behind 2015 Mavericks Summer League player Jordan Crawford (43.1ppg).

 

Gibson turned a lot of heads during Summer League in Las Vegas averaging: 17 points, 3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.5 steals. For more on J-Gib’s Summer League Production Read This.

 

 

Dorian Finney-Smith #10

 

Position: Forward[note]SF or 3[/note]

Height: 6’8”

Age: 23

School: University of Florida 

Last Season: University of Florida

Summer: Mavericks Summer League Team[note]Las Vegas[/note]

 

DFS played his first year in college at Virginia Tech before transferring to Florida. He led the Gators in rebounding every year he played in Florida and shot very well from three. He’s known as a three-and-D player which is highly valued and sought after in today’s NBA.

 

Finney-Smith has also endured through a couple of very difficult circumstances. In high school he witnessed his brother being shot and killed at a party in Portsmouth, VA.[note]DFS’ Hometown[/note] “That was hard for me, being 15, 16 years old and seeing your brother get shot,” Finney-Smith told NBA.com. “I thought I had to be strong for my mom, and my whole family. But I never had time to grieve.” Finney-Smith finally opened up to his team in 2014 at a team meeting during Florida’s run to the Final Four. “I just broke down, it was the first time I’d ever talked about it. I think it brought our team closer together.” [note]Read more about Dorian Finney-Smith’s story here[/note]

 

After leaving Florida and going undrafted this summer DFS played for the Mavericks Summer League team. For more on DFS’ Summer League play, read this.

 

 

Kyle Collinsworth[note]No relation to Cris Collinsworth…we think[/note] #2

 

Position: G/F[note]SG/SF or 2/3[/note]
Height: 6’6”
Age: 24
School: Brigham Young University (BYU)
Last Season: BYU

Summer: Mavericks Summer League Team[note]Las Vegas[/note]

 

After his freshman year at BYU he served a Missionary in Russia for two years for the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints.[note]Which explains the gap in his stats[/note]

 

In both Collinsworth’s junior and senior year at BYU he recorded six triple-doubles which is an NCAA record. He also holds the NCAA record for most triple-doubles in a season with 12.

 

Collinsworth was also an All-American in Track & Field for the 800m and is married to BYU Track & Field Athlete Shea Martinez-Collinsworth who qualified for the Olympic trials this past summer.

 

The biggest issue for Collinsworth has been his shooting, he shot 28% from three at BYU, and coach Carlisle commented on just that earlier this summer in a quote to Fansided. “He led the country in triple doubles. It is a matter of him getting his shooting down. When he is able to do that, he is an NBA player.”

 

 

Jameel Warney #32

 

Position: Forward[note]PF or 4[/note]

Height: 6’8”

Age: 22

School: Stony Brook University

Last Season: Stony Brook University

Summer: Mavericks Summer League Team[note]Las Vegas[/note]

 

American East Conference player of the year three years in a row, Jameel Warney has been called “the best (domestic) basketball player on the planet no one has ever heard of” by TodaysFastBreak.com. That’s probably a stretch[note]You don’t think that there’s some guy destroying Rucker Park out there that no one knows about? I mean we just learned about Uncle Drew a few years ago…[/note], but Warney was a double-double machine in college racking up 24 in 25 games his junior year and 21 in 33 games his senior year. So there might be something to that claim.

 

 

Nicolas Brussino #9

 

Position: Forward[note]SF or 3[/note]

Height: 6’9”

Age: 23

Club: Regatas Corrientes (Argentina)

Last Season: Penarol (Argentina)

Summer: Argentina Olympic Team

 

Brussino has spent his whole basketball career in Argentina. In 2015 he declared for the NBA Draft but went undrafted, then he was invited to the Utah Jazz’s training camp before returning to Argentina to improve his game. In the 2015-16 season, he set career highs per game in points (14.6), assists (3.1), rebounds (5.5), and steals (1.5) in 28.1 minutes.

There’s a really good breakdown of the specifics of his game by Bobby Karalla on Mavs.com.

 

 

CJ Williams #21

 

Position: Guard/Forward[note]SG/SF or 2/3[/note]

Height: 6’5”

Age: 26

School: North Carolina State

Last Season: JDA Dijon Bourgogne (France)

Summer: Spurs Summer League Team[note]Las Vegas & Utah[/note]

 

After playing four years at NC State and going undrafted in 2012, Williams became the epitome of a basketball journey man. In the 2012-13 season he played for Michelin Etha Engomis in Cyprus[note]An island off the coast of Turkey[/note], then he played in 49 games for the LA D-Fenders in the NBA D-League during the 2013-14 season.

 

After playing for the Milwaukee Bucks Summer League team in 2014, Williams played for Flexx Pistoia in Italy for the 2014-15 season. Then he joined the Minnesota Timberwolves Summer League team in 2016 before heading back overseas and playing for JDA Dijon Basket in France.

 

Finally, this summer Williams played for the San Antonio Spurs Summer League team in both Utah and Las Vegas before being invited to Mavericks Camp.  If you’re keeping track that’s roughly 38,087 miles[note]Which is enough miles to fly around the Earth one and a half times[/note] and 88 hours in the air[note]Which is enough time to watch the movie Up in the Air 48 times[/note] if he only took each trip once:

 

From	To	Miles (est.)	Duration (hrs)
N. Carolina	Cyprus	5,887	15
Cyprus	Los Angeles	7,314	18
Los Angeles	Las Vegas	270	1
Las Vegas	Italy	6,107	13
Italy	Las Vegas	6,107	14
Las Vegas	France	5,540	13
France	Utah	5,232	11
Utah	Las Vegas	430	1
Las Vegas	Dallas	1,200	2
	Total:	38,087	88

 

 

 

Keith Hornsby #14

 

Position: Guard[note]SG or 2[/note]

Height: 6’4”

Age: 24

School: Louisiana State University (LSU)

Last Season: LSU

Summer: N/A[note]Rehabbing Injury[/note]

 

Son of Grammy Winner Bruce Hornsby who’s musical genre is listed as jam band, rock, gospel, heartland rock, jazz, bluegrass, and blues rock.[note]So almost everything[/note]

 

Right before the start of the SEC tournament this past season Hornsby aggravated a hernia and had season-ending surgery. So he wasn’t able to play during Summer League and was only just released for “full contact” a few weeks ago.

 

Before LSU, Hornsby played his first two years of college at North Carolina-Ashville. At LSU, Hornsby was third on the team in scoring in 2014-15[note]Behind Jarrell Martin (Grizzlies) and Jordan Mickey (Celtics)[/note] and second in scoring in 2015-16 behind Ben Simmons (76ers).[note]And they said Ben Simmons didn’t have any help[/note]

 

 

Who Are the Odd Men Out?

 

This Mavericks team is very Guard heavy with guys like Seth Curry already trying to find minutes. It’s going to be very hard for Gibson, Hornsby, Collinsworth, and Williams to separate themselves and prove they’re worth one of the two spots. Gibson’s guaranteed money probably helps his case, not in the eyes of the coaches though, Carlisle already said “there’s guys with significant guaranteed money that won’t make this team.”  But Gibson’s guaranteed contract probably shows us that he has at least a slight edge over the other six guys.

 

Harrison Barnes and Justin Anderson[note]And maybe Quincy Acy[/note] stand as the only real Wings[note]Wes, as he said in his Media Day Presser, is a Guard[/note] so Brussino and Finney-Smith have an edge there. Depending on how Carlisle decides to use[note]Or not use[/note] Quincy Acy and how much he plays Barnes at the 4 changes the depth problem to the Big-Man spot behind Dirk.  Which would give Warney an advantage being the only real big man of this group.

 

The Mavericks have to make a decision by October 24th which is the date that rosters need to be cut to 15[note]With some exceptions, there’s always exceptions[/note] until then, watch these guys take the floor over the next few weeks and let us know who you think fill the final two spots:

 

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