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The Dallas Mavericks have signed Florida's Dorian Finney-Smith to a partially guaranteed three-year deal, the team announced on Friday, giving the team another candidate to fill one of their four open roster spots.
Finney-Smith is a five-year college player and a versatile 6'8 wing who can defend and shoot. Starting a couple seasons ago, the Mavericks have a habit of throwing a small amount of guaranteed money -- $300,000 or so, in the case of Maurice Ndour -- at players they like to make sure they end up in Dallas. If they do pan out, they have them under team control for three seasons, with is obviously an advantageous position to be in. Otherwise, the rest of the deal is partially guaranteed.
After the starters, the Mavericks have Devin Harris, J.J. Barea, Justin Anderson, Dwight Powell, A.J. Hammons and Salah Mejri. After expectedly waiving JaVale McGee on Friday, there's really four roster spots that could be claimed by players who impress the team in summer league and training camp. One such player is Nicolas Brussino, signed on Thursday. The Mavericks will likely target a veteran big man at some point (there's still a decent number of unsigned free agents out there), but there are certainly spots to fill.
Finney-Smith defended three positions at a high level in college and his jumper was effective his last two seasons, even if the shooting form has a little bit of wasted movement. He hit 43 percent on four attempts per game as a junior and 41 percent on five attempts as a senior. This article by Jonathan Tjarks breaks down Finney-Smith's potential NBA qualities very well.
Finney-Smith will be playing for the Mavericks' summer league team in Las Vegas, which plays its first game on Saturday.