About two months ago, the Dallas Mavericks made a savvy trade, sending the formerly undrafted Ryan Nembhard and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for former first overall pick Zaccharie Risacher.
It was part of a three-team deal that let the Hawks get Lu Dort from the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were looking to shed salary to duck the second apron penalties. The Thunder got a handful of second-round picks in return.
Even if Risacher would’ve been a mid-lottery talent in most drafts, there is still potential that the Mavericks are hoping to extract from him.
It was never clear what plans the Atlanta Hawks had for him, and apparently, they didn’t have any use for him at all.
On Tuesday evening, the Atlanta Hawks traded him, along with Buddy Hield and cash, for another former Maverick, Dorian Finney-Smith, who had been traded to the Charlotte Hornets by the Houston Rockets earlier in the offseason.
Finney-Smith dealt with a lot of injuries last year, so while he’s still owed about $40 million of the four-year, $52 million deal he signed last offseason, only this season is guaranteed.
The Hawks needed to consolidate their roster, as they were sitting at 16 players on standard contracts prior to this deal. This gets them to the 15-man limit.
Although Nembhard was traded to Charlotte, they are planning to waive him, which will allow the former Mavericks guard to hit the open market.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Nembhard is slated to have plenty of suitors for a two-way contract, including the Denver Nuggets, who he had arguably his best game against as a Maverick.
In that game, Nembhard had 28 points and 10 assists with no turnovers, letting people know he could play at the NBA level. It’s in that game and the stretch following that convinced the Mavericks to convert him from his two-way contract to a standard deal.
The Mavericks were able to do so once they waived Tyus Jones, whom they received from the Anthony Davis trade. But after that hot stretch in November and December, Nembhard didn’t make much of an impact the rest of the season.
He did have a strong finale, where he put up a whopping 15 points, 23 assists, and 9 rebounds.
Despite a big need at point guard, the Mavericks decided to move on from Nembhard this offseason. It may have been due to poor Summer League performances, as he was clearly weighing the team down, and Sergio De Larrea, the team’s 25th overall pick this year, looked to be a much better playmaker and has prototypical guard size.
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