The Dallas Mavericks Have Found Their ANSWER...

The Dallas Mavericks have found their answer. With Kyrie Irving being out for at least a year with his ACL injury, the Dallas Mavericks are very, very thin at the guard position. Najee Marshall is a good option, but he's a small forward even though he can do it all. We also have Jaden Hardy, who is very much like a Tim Hardaway Jr. as of late. And then we have Spencer Dinwiddie, who's just Spencer Dinwiddie. And we have Dante Exum, but he's also out with a broken hand. And we also have Brandon Williams, who currently cannot play for the Dallas Mavericks until we offer him a contract, and that will most likely come on April 10th, and he will again most likely be with the team for the next season. And although we may not find that direct one-to-one replacement for Kyrie until he comes back, the next best thing that the Dallas Mavericks can do is add more depth to that guard position until Kyrie Irving does come back. And the answer could have been right in front of us as last night after the win against the Atlanta Hawks, it was Dennis Smith Jr. who was seen in the tunnel talking to staff and other players. So in this video, we're going to take a look at what happened after last night's Hawks game, is Dennis Smith Jr. the answer for the Dallas Mavericks moving forward, and whether or not this could actually happen. 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 you start with today's video, we're currently sitting at 20,192 subscribers. I just want to say thank you so much for all the love and support. I really do appreciate it. But if you want to be up to date on everything Mavericks related, if you want to be here for our live streams, our watch alongs, our news vids and everything else in between, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on a single thing that we do. But like I said, the Dallas Mavericks, they've got a small problem, which will soon eventually look like a big problem in its injuries as we've been dealing with all season. But more specifically, it's at the guard position. Not only is Kyrie Irving out, but currently we have Dante Exum out. And with Dante Exum on expiring contract, it's highly likely that he may not be on the team next year. He's honestly always getting injured. He got injured over the summer playing for the Olympics. He got injured again right before the season. He came back in January only to go out in late February with another injury. And who knows when he'll actually return for the Dallas Mavericks, if he will even return. So the guard position is getting thinner by the day. And like I said before, we have Najee Marshall, who is a good option. He is a good ball handler. We do have Spencer Dinwiddie, who sometimes has a little bit too much confidence. He likes to think he's an all-star. And we have Jaden Hardy, who is Jaden Hardy. We also have Brandon Williams, who will most likely join the Dallas Mavericks around April 10th, when we inevitably give him a contract to help us in the playoff, oh I'm sorry, for the play-in, as we make a push for the playoffs. But we could definitely use more help. And like I said before, there really isn't a one-to-one replacement for Kyrie Irving in this free agency, or even just available for trade. The Dallas Mavericks will have to do the next best thing, and that's load up with guards. If Spencer Dinwiddie's not working, throw out Jaden Hardy. If Jaden Hardy's not working, throw out Brandon Williams. If all those players aren't working, or a combination of players, you want to make sure you have ample backups. Right now, the Dallas Mavericks have a very good big man rotation of Anthony Davis, P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, Derek Lively, Kai Jones, if he stays. And we don't want to overload on bigs. We want to make sure we have a good amount of guards as well. And if we can't get just a very good premier center, and although A.D. is a premier player, he is still a power forward, but if we can't get that just one number one best center in the league, you gotta load up on centers, and that's exactly what we did. So the same should be said for the guard position. And over the summer last year, before free agency, we were going over news that the Dallas Mavericks were working out with Dennis Smith Jr. and that he could possibly return to the Dallas Mavericks. For those that know, Dennis Smith Jr. has a very good relationship with Luka Doncic. To this day, I'd want to say they both play Overwatch together, but they do have a good relationship. But with Luka Doncic no longer being on the Dallas Mavericks, I was under the impression that Dennis Smith Jr. probably doesn't want to come here. I was honestly waiting for the news to come out that Dennis Smith Jr. ended up going to the Los Angeles Lakers to play with Luka, to play with Dorian, and to play with LeBron. But the other night after the win against the Atlanta Hawks, Dennis Smith Jr. was seen in the tunnel talking to players, talking to staff, and a lot of rumors were floating around of, oh he wants to come back, he wants to play for Dallas, what could be going on, we're about to make the play-in, we got one more roster spot, give it to Dennis Smith Jr. But he could have just been there to see the game and enjoy it, until we got this report right here from Lauren Gunn saying, after a very brief chat I had this morning, there's certainly interest in a reunion. So there's a lot of good behind that, not a lot of bad honestly. Dennis Smith Jr. hasn't been in the NBA all season. He did play for the G League briefly earlier this January. I want to say he did play with Real Madrid until February-ish where he left, hoping to come back to the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks could definitely be a place. I mean he was here before and I get it, we traded him, but there's a lot of players that we end up trading and they come back, like Seth Curry, who's been traded twice by the Dallas Mavericks, so why not? That's his way to get back into the NBA and maybe not for the Dallas Mavericks long-term. I mean he is 27 years old, he isn't necessarily young, but he's also not old. He's right in that nice prime age where if he plays very well for the Dallas Mavericks, he may get a bigger contract somewhere else, which would be great for his own career. But for the Dallas Mavericks, Dennis Smith Jr. could be a pretty good pickup for us. First of all, he's cheap. We don't have a lot of money. We are literally hard-capped right now and over the summer, depending on who goes and who stays, free agency could be very, very barren for the Dallas Mavericks. So with Dennis Smith Jr., you know for a fact you can sign him on a very small deal, very similar to someone like Spencer Dinwiddie, someone that we gave a very small contract over the summer last year and is paying dividends for us now. And although Dennis Smith Jr., again, he's not a replacement for Kyrie, he's nowhere near Kyrie, but he adds depth to that guard position as sometimes Jason Kitt likes to throw two or three guards out there with a couple bigs, and adding a player like Dennis Smith Jr. just adds more to the mix. He's very athletic, he plays amazing defense, he can attack the basket, a really good point of attack defender, and we all know how Nico Harrison thinks that defense wins championships, so why not get someone like a Dennis Smith Jr.? Let's take a look right here. Just the other day, Shamson tweeted out that Dallas Mavericks All-Star Kyrie Irving underwent successful surgery to repair his torn left ACL on Wednesday at the hospital for special surgery in New York City. The surgery was performed by HSS Chief of Sports Medicine Dr. Raleigh J. Williams, so we do know for a fact that Kyrie Irving did get surgery about a week ago, knowing that he will be out for six to twelve months, eight to twelve months really, the earliest that Kyrie Irving could return is November. Most likely that's not the case, I do believe that he'll be out for a full year, so expect Kyrie Irving to be back sometime next February, and in the meantime, the most important thing is to get players to help this team until Kyrie comes back, especially at that guard position, and if by some unknown reason the Dallas Mavericks don't make the playoffs and we are still in the lottery, most likely the Dallas Mavericks will select a guard with that lottery pick in the first round, it only makes sense, but if we do make the playoffs and we don't really have that good of a first round pick, we can still draft a guard with our first round pick, but odds are we'll probably have to just draft whoever is the best player available at the time if it isn't a top pick in that first round, but Dennis Smith Jr., like I said, he could definitely fit that role for the Dallas Mavericks against defense, something that Spencer Dinwiddie and Jane Hardy are very, very bad at, he's not a bad ball handler, he's able to attack the basket very, very well, so he adds a little bit of diversity to our guard pool so they're not all the same, they have strengths and weaknesses that other players with other strengths can cover those weaknesses. Dennis Smith Jr., a cheap option for the Dallas Mavericks so we're not too strapped for cash over the summer as we're also going to have to re-sign Kyrie or he's going to pick up his player option whichever route they go, he plays great defense, it'll add to that guard depth till Kyrie comes back, you can give him a very team-friendly one-year deal like we gave Spencer, and next year if he's getting bigger offers, thank you Dennis, if you want to stay that's For this upcoming offseason, a lot of big moves need to be made and nothing too groundbreaking or game-changing for the Mavericks, but the number one priority is to find a good replacement for Kyrie, not a one-to-one, but just to add to that depth, we're not going to find another Kyrie for anywhere near the value that you want, so you may as well get just more than enough players that can help mitigate that hurt until he does come back. And just the last thing I want to go over right through this out saying what I think the Mavericks should do, on April 10th sign Brandon Williams to NBA contract, April 12th sign Ky Jones to another two-way contract, offseason get rid of Denwiddie and Exum for Kobe White and Derrick White, so I don't think we're getting Kobe White or Derrick White, but on April 10th definitely sign Brandon Williams to an NBA contract, and with Dennis Smith Jr. maybe he gets that last contract, and although I think that would be very foolish to do right before the playoffs, give Brandon Williams a contract, the guy who's been with the team longer than Dennis Smith in recent memory, someone who's played with them, who knows the team a little bit better, but for the upcoming season, why not go for Dennis? Let me know in the comment section down below, do you think Dennis would be a good pick, or just go with Brandon Williams, trust your gut, and Dennis Smith Jr. being at the tunnel last night meant absolutely nothing. Let me know what you think in the comment section down below, we'd have a conversation about it, but that's all I got for you guys today, thanks for making it this far into the video, make sure to check out our Twitter and Discord, links in the description below, and as always, drink water, peace.