The Dallas Mavericks Are Forced Into IMPOSSIBLE Decision...

The Dallas Mavericks have been forced into an impossible decision. With only 15 games left in the regular season, the Dallas Mavericks have been dealing with injuries left and right and have been relying heavily on their two-way players, specifically Brandon Williams and Kessler Edwards. And in the world of two-way players and two-way contracts and how the rules work with the NBA, those two guys are only allowed to play a handful of games left until the Dallas Mavericks will have to decide if we're going to give our last roster spot to any of the three to help us make a deep push in the playoffs. So in this video, we're going to take a look at all of our two-way guys, how well have they been playing for the Dallas Mavericks, and who should stay and who should go. But how's it going, everybody? My name is Marcel Martin. This is Mavericks Digest, bringing you the latest news on everything Mavericks related. And before we get started with today's video, make sure to check us out on Spotify. I know sometimes you don't have time to watch every single video that comes out, but whether you're in the car, driving to work, or going to pick up your kids, or going to a date night with your lady or your man, check me out on Spotify. every video will be uploaded so you can still get the news whenever you want it the link will be in the description below but like i said the Dallas Mavericks we've all seen what's been happening in these games we only go in with seven maybe eight players available with at least two of those guys being our two-way players we do have Kai Jones who did have an amazing game with the Dallas Mavericks in his debut but shortly after he did have a quad injury and we do have an update for Kai Jones later in this video but Brandon Williams and to a bigger extent Kessler Edwards have stepped up big time for the Dallas Mavericks and on this channel i've talked about how Brandon Williams could be the future for the Dallas Mavericks as in comparison to Jaden Hardy he is the better player as well as Kessler Edwards who is only about six foot eight has been our residential center over the last month has been playing amazing basketball against other teams where this small ball lineup never really looked this good and although we're not winning the majority of our games we're still the 10th seed we just lost to the Spurs after we just beat the Spurs Kessler Edwards is doing a good enough job for someone who is nowhere near seven feet tall while the Dallas Mavericks are waiting for all of our bigs to come back but if we take a look at each and every one of those players starting off with Brandon Williams over the last four games he's been averaging 19.3 points 4.5 rebounds 6.3 assists two steals 1.8 three pointers made while shooting 53.8 percent from the floor and 87.5 percent from the free throw line averaging about four free throws a game seven games left on his two-way contract playing fantastic ball just be mindful that the Mavs only have two games next week so with our current injured rosters slowly but surely trying to make their way back we do have two-way guys like Brandon Williams who's only allowed to play seven more games and thankfully next week we only play two games that gives the rest of our injured guys another week to slowly come back so i can definitely see when we do get some of our players back players like Kessler Edwards and Brandon Williams who are reaching that limit of games made available for the season will most likely set up those games but in the meantime Brandon Williams has been great for us like i've said and like in every other video i've made on this channel comparing him to Jayden Hardy Brandon Williams is the better guard you can make the argument that Jayden Hardy is is more of a two guard he isn't really a point guard he is a scorer. He's a microwave scorer who really isn't that great on defense, who doesn't really play make that well, but we've seen Jayden Hardy go on amazing tears, amazing runs over several games to the point where halfway through the season, Jayden Hardy was leading the league in three-point percentages. Jayden Hardy is not a bad player by any means, but in the fit for the Dallas Mavericks, Brandon Williams has shown us time and time again that he doesn't need a consistent role. He doesn't need consistent minutes, and he can still outperform Jayden Hardy. If we take a look right here just comparing them side by side for this year Jayden Hardy has played almost twice as many games as Brandon Williams and the difference isn't that big but it's still a difference to be to be seen he is averaging eight points compared to Brandon Williams 6.3 as well as 1.5 rebounds to Brandon Williams 1.4 not a big difference but the assists the steals the blocks the field goal percentage the three-point percentage the free throw percentage the effective field goal percentage everything on here even the box plus minus favors Brandon Williams and the one stat that I would have everybody look closely at is the box plus minus Jaden Hardy for the season is a minus five in the box plus minus while Brandon Williams is a point three not that big of a deal but he is but he is positive in that regard and like I said Jaden Hardy's defense is very bad it's not that he can't defend it's almost like he over defends he fouls a lot he turns over the ball a lot the playmaking isn't really there if we're being honest Jaden Hardy is in a way just a younger Tim Hardaway Jr. he's a microwave scorer he can shoot the ball he can score but he doesn't play defense he doesn't play make he's very inconsistent where sometimes the Hardy party is raging on and sometimes it feels like the Hardy party got shut down and going forward with the Dallas Mavericks in this upcoming draft which is guard heavy and if the Dallas Mavericks can get a nice spot in the lottery the Dallas Mavericks may just move on from not just Jaden Hardy but also Brandon Williams if they do decide to draft a top-tier point guard in the draft and if they don't we could definitely bring back Brandon Williams he's been playing alongside Kyrie Irving specifically being mentored by Kyrie Irving you can kind of see a little bit of his game in Brandon Williams game and for the Dallas Mavericks moving forward I know a lot of people would love to see him with this team and knowing that Kyrie Irving will be out for a year maybe eight months as early as December he could come back and as late as this time next year he would return going into the regular season next year with Dante Exum and Spencer Dinwiddie who are both on expiring contracts this summer they both could be gone but going into the next season with those two as our starting point guards where we would have to decide who we really want to start it'll be nice to have a player like Brandon Williams coming off the bench or maybe himself starting if he does make that leap over the summer would definitely would definitely benefit this Dallas Mavericks roster while we're waiting for Kyrie Irving to return but the other two-way guy that we definitely got to talk about is our guy Kai Jones he only played one game with the Dallas Mavericks but that one game it was pretty rough because that was a game that Kyrie Irving got hurt however that was the game that Kai Jones definitely stood out to a lot of fans obviously Kai Jones has been known for his antics over in Charlotte he's been dealing with mental health issues but he has been getting help he does seem like a completely different person more focused and more well-mannered and it's definitely showed and in his debut for the Mavericks he put up 21 points eight rebounds shooting 9 of 10 from the floor first player to score 20 plus points on 90 field goal percentage in a debut with a team since 1999 very niche uh i guess you know thing that he broke a nice little niche record that he broke however just doing that for the Dallas Mavericks in your first game is still very impressive Kai Jones was the 19th overall pick in his draft he's not a bad player maybe a little sporadic maybe uncontrollable or unpredictable however it like i said things have changed he's not the same guy from his rookie year he has gotten the help so to give Kai Jones the grace is something that we should all do he is a Dallas Maverick so we should be rooting for him but we've only seen him play in one game in that one game even though it was great really isn't that big of a sample size however the dallas mavericks like i said before we won't have Kyrie Irving for the majority of next year which means we will be relying on our size fully healthy mavericks we have Anthony Davis derrick lively daniel gafford we got kessler edwards if we want to throw him at the starting center i'm not starting center but if you ever want to put him as a center we have him we'll still have dwight powell most likely we have pj washington we have a lot of size on this team and if you add kai jones to that the dallas mavericks may have some of the best front court players in the league at least the best front court rotation of anthony davis derrick lively pj washington daniel gafford dwight powell kai jones and you could have him as a third string center and you kind of slide dwight powell to that very end of the bench at that 15th man spot and giving kai jones that contract that last roster spot could definitely help the dallas mavericks in this upcoming season if we are dealing with more injuries we'll have someone like kai jones instead of trying to find a player like kai jones we'll already have him here and i'm a fan of his i really did enjoy watching him that first game and we do have somewhat of an injury update for kai jones he has been listed as questionable ahead of tomorrow's game against houston rockets who knows pj is also questionable maybe we'll see some guys back but in the future of kai jones with the dallas mavericks i would love to see him come back and in the world of two-way contracts you have to have no more than four years of NBA experience this is Kai Jones third year in the NBA so if we do want to bring him back but maybe not a roster spot we can give him another two-way deal for just next year maybe make some moves to where we can eventually bring him on but i'm in favor of keeping Kai Jones if we could just continue with what we got going on like i said PJ Washington Dante Exum and Brandon Williams are all questionable for Friday's game against the Houston Rockets. Kai Jones has also been upgraded to questionable for the game, so that's good to know as well. But the last two-way guy that we definitely need to talk about is our boy Kessler Edwards, our residential center. And just the other day, after scoring 12 first-half points against San Antonio on Monday, Kessler Edwards has 12 points at the half tonight, last night's game against the Spurs again Edwards had one double-digit scoring opening half in his career prior to doing it in consecutive games against the Spurs, and we all know how Dereck Lively plays very well against Wembanyama and Yama maybe Kessler Edwards just really plays well against the San Antonio Spurs both teams were dealing with injuries and obviously with all the injuries that the Mavericks have been having in the last month two three months really Kessler Edwards has been a bright spot for us he's only six foot eight he is not a center but he's been playing that position at least for the most part recently long enough to the point where he looks very comfortable in that he's hanging down low the defense you can only do what you can when you're up against someone who is seven feet tall but he still tries on defense we can also space the floor so he's not a real center and he can shoot threes maybe not the highest clip but he can make maybe one or two a game and we bring back Kessler Edwards for at least the playoff run again that would just be a little bit more of a security blanket for the Dallas Mavericks if he were to see more injuries in the postseason but even beyond that if we want to give Kessler Edwards a guaranteed contract for this upcoming season I wouldn't be opposed to that I think Kessler Edwards has earned a spot with the Dallas Mavericks by proving that you can rely on him in any capacity we weren't playing Kessler Edwards in his natural position we had injuries to our bigs look to this six eight forward said hey play against seven footers and he's been and he's been playing great he had a double double just the other night against the San Antonio Spurs I'm a big fan of Kessler Edwards just like I am of Brandon Williams just like I am of Kai Jones and that's what makes this decision impossible for the Mavericks we only have one open roster spot we have three guys on a two-way contract only one of them can come back and that's Brandon Williams this is his fourth year in the NBA he cannot come back next year as a two-way guy we would have to give him that guaranteed contract or he'd probably have to go and find another team but amongst those three it's really hard for me to even decide who i'd want out of all of them i'd love to see all of them back next year but we can only realistically bring back one unless we let Dwight Powell go trade away Jaden Hardy as well as Caleb Martin whatever moves Nico Harrison wants to do in the offseason is up to him and up to Jason Kidd as well on who they want to bring back next year and just continue with what we have and like i always said at the end of these videos guess that maverick this maverick is currently on the roster a lot of them consider him the goat a lot of them consider him the next player get a statue and his number just hanging up there in the rafters retired let me know who you think it is in the comment section down below but that's all i got for you guys today let me know if you think that Brandon Williams, Kessler Edwards or Kai Jones is someone you'd like to see back on the Dallas Mavericks, i'm undecided, i like all of them, it's really hard for me to pick let me know who you think, but that's all i got for you guys today, thanks for being part of the video, make sure to check out our Twitter and Discord links in the description below, consider becoming a channel member, we are doing giveaways every single month on this channel, only way to enter our giveaways is to become a channel member of any tier but till next time y'all take care drink water, peace