As the preseason approaches and the start of the season in the NBA, the franchises look for the last reinforcements with which to complete those few places that are still free on the rosters. It is usual that at this time teams do private training with players who are still free, many of them veterans which, at a low price, can bring experience and, depending on their fitness, numbers.
That’s what happened this Thursday with the Dallas MavericksAlthough the three players who were present in training seem almost from another era. Is about Isaiah Thomas, Lance Stephenson and Monta Ellis, three players who at the peak of their careers were important, even stars like Thomas, but now seem a long way from the good times.
Isaiah was never the same since his hip surgery in 2017-18, just after being an all star twice and finishing in the second best quintet of the season with the Boston Celtics. Since then he has played a total of 87 games in 4 seasons, through the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Denver Nuggets, the Washington Wizards and, finally, the New Orleans Pelicans, where at 32 he only played three games last year. However and according to Shams Charania, who has advanced the news of the Mavs training with the three, those who have seen him say he is in great physical shape and that his intention is to start the season on an NBA team.
As for the other two, Stephenson has not appeared in the league since 2018-19, when he belonged to the Lakers, with whom he averaged 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Throughout the summer the escort would have already conducted private training with Milwaukee, Denver, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, among others. Ellis, 35, is the longest without jumping onto an NBA court of the three, since 2016-17. So, with the Indiana Pacers, he stayed at 8.5 points per game, far from the 17.8 he averages throughout his career.
However, as Kurt Helin points out on NBC, the Mavs’ 15th-place roster might not go to either of them. Moses Brown, third-year center, has a partially guaranteed contract and the idea within the franchise is that he is the one who occupies the last place free. That Provided Goran Dragic doesn’t get within range at the last minute. For this, the Toronto Raptors, the team to which he now belongs after the sing-and-trade with Kyle Lowry, they’d have to cut him off. Something that is not ruled out. In that scenario there are many options for the Slovenian guard to meet again with his compatriot Luka Doncic.
