If you bought low on Ryan Nembhard stock after the 2025 NBA Draft, as some associated with this scrappy little website did after the Dallas Mavericks (7-15) scooped up the pure point guard out of UConn on a two-way deal that fateful night in June, his first three NBA starts no doubt have visions of sugar plums and dollar signs dancing in your head right about now.
Hell, for any old Mavericks’ fan, Monday night’s 28-point, 10-assist coming-out party against the Denver Nuggets (14-6) at Ball Arena might have you reworking your five-year vision board for the team’s outlook. At the very least, Nembhard has been an unexpected revelation after 19 games of futility at the most important position on the court.
It turns out, the Mavericks had a nice little point guard on the roster all along.
After going scoreless with just one assist to his credit in a first quarter that saw Dallas fall behind by as many as 17 points, Nembhard course corrected for 11 points and four dimes in the second as Dallas’ fortunes in Denver seemed to reverse with his improved rhythm on their way to a 69-68 lead at halftime.
Then the guy who no one went out on a limb for on Draft night detonated in the third quarter. Nembhard followed up that 11-point second frame with 15 more points on 6-of-7 shooting (including 3-of-4 from 3-point range) and two more assists in the third quarter.
As the game got drunker, Nembhard got hotter. Or maybe it was vice versa. He was like that pool player who couldn’t hit a straight-in shot before getting lubricated with three or four slugs of brown drink. He was one with the universe. Feeling the flow, as Kevin Nealon taught us in the 1996 comedy hit “Happy Gilmore.”
On the other end of the floor, Denver two-way forward Spencer Jones scored 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting for the Nuggets in just his 35th NBA game. Nembard’s 28 and Jones’ matching 28 set a new season-high scoring mark for a player on a two-way deal this year, and they did it in the same game. Truly, what the hell was wafting through the Mile-High air on Monday, and can we aerosolize it?
Nembhard’s first start, in the Mavs’ 129-119 loss at the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, was enough on its own to get a conversation started. He scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point land in the loss. He was considerably less spectacular, but still made some big shots (2-of-5 from beyond the arc) in his second start, a 114-110 win down the block at the Los Angeles Clippers.
“He took the shots that were there for him, he played the game the right way, and good things happened for him,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said in Monday’s postgame press conference.
Nembhard’s fading perimeter jumper over Jones with 1:57 left to play basically put the game out of reach for Denver, who, all of a sudden, have lost their last four games at home. Less than two minutes later, the Mavs completed their best game of the year so far, a 131-121 win over the recently mighty Nuggets.
Not only were his 28 points one of the differences in the win on Monday, but Nembhard’s 10 assists in the game set a new Mavericks franchise single-game record for an undrafted rookie. Yogi Ferrell and Marquis Daniels each had nine-assist games in their respective rookie seasons. Nembhard became just the third rookie in Mavericks franchise history on Monday to record a 25-point, 10-assist game.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive, to get paint touches,” Nembhard said in his televised postgame interview. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can make shots, so get it out to them.”
But again with the “not only’s.” Not only did he score 28 points. He did it on only 14 shots (12-of-14 shooting, 4-of-5 from 3-point land). Not only did he dish 10 helpers. Nembhard didn’t turn the ball over — not once — in 35 minutes on the floor running the offense. That’s an infinity stone of an assist-to-turnover ratio. It was, by every metric, one of the most efficient games you’ll see any NBA player execute this season.
On a team that came into the game averaging more than 16 giveaways per game, Nembhard is a godsend. The Mavericks have turned the ball over just 25 times in the last three games, all Nembhard starts. They’ve won two games in a row for the first time this year, and it finally happened in two of the three Nembhard starts. His play has at least coincided with, and at best, is heavily influencing actual results in the win column, unlike anyone on this roster has done this year.
“I’m feeling great, I ain’t gonna lie,” Nembhard said. “I got confidence in my game.”
Hell yeah, young man. Welcome to the mind’s eye of every Mavericks fan in the world.