The Mavericks sign ball-handling forward Nicolas Brussino to a 3-year deal

The Mavericks have signed 23-year-old small forward Nicolas Brussino to a three-year deal, according to the European basketball Sportando and confirmed by ESPN's Tim MacMahon. The deal is partially guaranteed.

Brussino is a 6'8 small forward with ball handling skills who declared for the 2015 NBA Draft but received little interest. Last season, the Argentinian played for Penarol in Argentina, and he's also part of the Argentinian National Team. Penarol is a long-standing team in Argentina that plays in their top basketball league, but it's hard to gauge exactly how competitive it is.

That said, Brussino had great stats last year, playing 59 games and starting 40 of them. He averaged 14.6 points per game on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 39 percent from behind the arc, while grabbing 5.5 rebounds and dishing three assists compared to two turnovers. He's clearly a ball handler who can make plays off the dribble, especially since assists are counted much more strictly in international leagues than they are in the NBA.

You can watch a highlight video of Brussino here and see that he's a pretty fluid athlete who can finish around the rim. His jumper concerns me -- between his low release point and slightly funky mechanics, I doubt it would directly translate to the NBA. But he's capable of hitting from outside, even if he's not a knockdown shooter, which is a good sign.

There's another video of a 30-point game you can watch here.

By signing him to a three-year deal that is partially guaranteed, you can guess the Mavericks view him similar to Maurice Ndour from last season. He's not a lock to make the roster, but they're rooting for it and he'll get plenty of chances to do so throughout training camp and preseason. It's possible he's nothing more than a camp body, but Brussino appears to be a bit more than that.