Mavericks’ summer-league coach Greg St. Jean is getting the first crack to build good habits and good vibes with second-round draft pick Jaden Hardy.
As one of Jason Kidd’s assistants, St. Jean is in his second season coaching the Mavericks’ summer-league squad that opens play Friday in Las Vegas.
And as summer practices opened he wanted to make sure that the Mavericks were not “feeding him with a firehose.”
To that, Hardy says: Spray as much as you want.
The 6-4 guard, who officially signed his multiyear contract with the Mavericks Thursday morning, has been a standout in the first two days of the summer workouts. On Wednesday, he had a good session, chatted with media members, then jetted to Las Vegas ahead of the Mavericks to take part in the rookie orientation program.
The rest of the Mavericks will fly to Las Vegas on Thursday and open the league Friday against Chicago at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.
Hardy, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Tuesday, will be the most-watched Maverick when the summer games begin. He knows that showing up big in Las Vegas can catch the eye of everybody in the NBA.
He knows that because Hardy attended virtually every NBA summer league when he was growing up near Las Vegas.
And the desire to show his stuff is also why he’s wanted the coaches to bring as much knowledge as they can early in the process.
“I want to learn,” Hardy said. “I want them to pour it all on me. Just give me the knowledge. It’s been fun. Different finishes, ballhandling, handling screens.
“Being able to play at this level is something I’ve always dreamed of. Growing up and watching the summer league, I always pictured myself being out there. Now that I am out there, I want to prove to everybody who I am.”
Who he is, is a gifted athlete with a lot of natural skills. But that’s only half of the battle, as St. Jean said. Getting Hardy a solid foundation to build upon is one of the primary goals in summer league.
Hardy did not play college basketball, electing to go to the G-League Ignite to play last season, where he excelled, particularly later in the season.
Now, he’s starting an NBA career bursting with potential.
“For us right now, it’s about putting him in situations to be successful, as well as to challenge him,” St. Jean said. “Healthy exposure, I think, is a good phrase – put him in those situations so we can help him see and feel those things he needs to (improve).
“As far as the intangibles go, some guys naturally have them. He’s somebody who has a few things that he can do that will be able to come in and impact a game right away. But then there’s going to be things we need to continue to improve upon and slow the game down for him. He speeds the game up because of his athleticism, because of that, we need to help slow that down.
“We’re not trying to throw too much at him.”
Hardy celebrated his birthday by going out to dinner with Moses Wright, the second-year forward who is expected to start on the summer team along with Hardy.
“He took care of me,” Hardy said, meaning that the NBA vet of one season picked up the check.
Hardy is no strange to having a lot of info thrown at him in a short amount of time. Going from high school to the G-League was a similar transition.
It helped, he said, that former NBA player and Skyline High School product C.J. Miles was with the G-League Ignite team for part of the season.
“C.J. was my guy,” Hardy said. “He was with us for a short period of time, but when he was there, he was coming at me and I was a sponge. He was telling me about taking care of my body, getting a lot of reps after practice. I learned a lot from C.J.”
Hardy will have a sizeable posse with him during summer league. “A bunch” of family and friends, he said, will be representing at the Mavericks’ games.
And, he’ll have Wright there with him. The 6-8 Wright said he’s been a big fan of Hardy since a G-League game last season when Wright was playing for Agua Caliente.
“He gave us close to 30 – 26, I think,” Wright said. “I was like, damn, this young dude is nice.”
Said Hardy: “I remember that game. We were talking about it yesterday when we went out to dinner. I remember one play, I went down the middle and he was like, ‘Why didn’t you dunk that?’ He (Wright) was right there, too. He said I could have dunked it on him. I don’t know why I didn’t. But I already knew who Moses was.”
Starting Friday, people will get to know who Jaden Hardy is. And he can’t wait.
Twitter: @ESefko
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