DALLAS – As players around the NBA are waived or are bought out of their contract, the Dallas Mavericks will search the list of available players and see if there’s anyone who fits their needs.
After all of the wheeling and dealing they’ve done recently, the Mavs have a roster spot available. But there’s no guarantee they’ll use it at any point during these final 28 games of the season.
“We’re looking at our options as I understand it,” coach Rick Carlisle said after Saturday’s practice eat the Lympo practice facilities. “In the meantime, I’ve got to concentrate on the guys that we have here.
“That’s kind of how it is and we’ll see what happens in the next several days. There’s some guys getting bought out and some of this and some of that. There will be some different types of options, so we’ll see where the chips fall.”
Options are plentiful for the Mavs players after four of the opening-day starters – Harrison Barnes, Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews – were sent packing in two separate trades within the span of a week.
Jordan, Smith, Matthews and a pair of first-round draft picks were traded to the New York Knicks on Jan. 31 for Kristaps Porzingis, Tom Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee. Barnes, meanwhile, was traded to the Sacramento Kings this past Wednesday for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph, who the Mavs subsequently waived on Friday.
While the shuffling of the deck has an obvious effect on the players — they have to pack up and move across the country at a moment’s notice — what type of challenges are there for the coach?
“Well, it’s an opportunity for us,” Carlisle said. “It’s kind of a new approach going forward. Guys that certainly appear to want to be here. We’re using some different strategies because the personnel is different.
“Are there challenges? Yeah, there’s changes, but there’s opportunity. Fortunately, we’ve had a week with some practice time, which has helped, and so we’ll just keep trying to build on that. That’s the way we’ve got to do it.”
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