Within an interesting story about how Ryan Nembhard ended up on a two-way contract with the Mavericks after going undrafted in June, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link) reports that Dallas has “already committed” to promoting the rookie to a standard deal as soon as the team is able to do so.
As we outlined on Thursday, Nembhard has been making a strong case to have his two-way deal converted to a standard contract since he took over as the Mavericks’ starting point guard five games ago. However, with only about $1.29MM in breathing room below their second-apron hard cap, the Mavs are ineligible to add a prorated minimum-salary contract to their roster until January 6.
Promoting Nembhard as soon as they can next month would put the Mavericks in a difficult financial position, as they would be just $12K away from their hard cap. Dallas was in a similar situation last season and was unable to add reinforcements when the roster was decimated by injuries during the second half.
More to come…