As the summer months continue to fly by and we find ourselves just days or hours away from the NBA 2K26 Summer League (depending on when you read this), the excitement to watch the Mavericks play only grows. Now that the roster has been officially announced, here are three Dallas players I cannot wait to see when I make the trip to Las Vegas this week:
Ryan Nembhard
Nembhard is the perfect player to lead this summer league team. He is a textbook point guard, and that is invaluable in an environment where most teams have a collection of guys trying to prove themselves. Leaders build teams, teams win games, and when the team wins, everybody gets noticed a little more. It is easy to buy in when the guy with the ball in his hands is actively making everyone around him better. That is what Nembhard does, and it should separate the Mavericks from their competition immediately.
Concerning the new crowned jewel of the Mavericks, there is no other guy you want alongside Cooper Flagg for his first game action than Ryan Nembhard. I am thrilled to see their chemistry and what Nembhard can do for some of the other fringe guys on this Dallas team. Of course, he needs to knock down shots, but the key aspect of his game to look for will be how well he can direct traffic and manage this squad. I proposed that the Mavericks should start him from opening night, and these games are where that campaign has to take off.
Zhuric Phelps
As a Texas A&M graduate, I watched Phelps very closely this past season. He is extremely talented, but went undrafted largely due to his situation in College Station last year. At his core, he is a tough shot maker and opportunistic facilitator. Unfortunately, he was in a backcourt with Wade Taylor, who has the same tendencies as Phelps. There was no real point guard when both of them were on the floor, and this resulted in a lot of sloppy play and poor decision-making. If you want to get a good feel for what Phelps is capable of, watch the second half of their January 8th win at Oklahoma. Phelps helped lead a comeback for the Aggies with his 34 points and the game-winning three, without Taylor in the lineup.
During the college season, I was asked if either of A&M’s guards were NBA players. Taylor was an immediate no, but I held steady in my opinion that Phelps is salvageable. With the right coaching, a lot of the shots he takes become more efficient. With the addition of a point guard next to him, a lot of his decision-making becomes more reasonable. He will have a chance to play with Nembhard in Las Vegas, which should allow him to play his game more. That is what I will be watching. Can he make the right reads and take good shots? If so, he could have a place on an NBA roster. It may not be the Mavericks, but with decisions to be made about Jaden Hardy, Phelps could be a contender to step into Hardy’s role eventually. I am hoping to see the best version of Phelps over the next two weeks.
Cooper Flagg
This one is a no-brainer, but putting the sentiment into writing is important nonetheless. Flagg will be playing basketball in a Mavericks jersey for the first time this week, and that is a very exciting prospect. In his one year at Duke, he averaged 19.2 points on 48 percent shooting, which included nearly 39 percent from three-point range. This excellent three-point mark is what I am going to be looking at most carefully in Las Vegas. The defensive acumen and physical ability will translate without a doubt. The finishing and dominance inside will be Flagg’s strong suit on offense. But if he can open the floor for himself by hitting threes at a high clip, that changes his offensive outlook entirely.
The numbers are one story, but to me, form is much more important. You can always create a good shooter from a bad one if their form is solid. In Flagg’s case, his form has seemingly gotten smoother throughout the last few years, and looked as good as it has in practice on Tuesday:
I will be interested to see how this translates to real(ish) NBA games and what kinds of shots he feels comfortable taking. Outside of the shooting, it will be fun to see him beat up on rookies and unproven players defensively, and dominate smaller guys on offense. The big, physical, highly talented guys always stand out in summer league, so we will find out quickly just how good Flagg can be. And I am super excited to see it.