{"id":380378,"date":"2026-07-21T01:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T01:42:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:42:32","slug":"dallas-mavericks-waive-forward-after-summer-league-mishap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380378\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks Waive Forward After Summer League Mishap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">The Dallas Mavericks concluded their 2026 NBA Summer League last Friday with a 3-2 record. It was one of the more fun Mavericks Summer League teams in recent memory, as players like Sergio De Larrea and Vsevolod Ishchenko had noteworthy performances. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">However, one of the big storylines coming out of Summer League was the lack of <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gZI4sIRtFe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tyler Smith<\/a>. He was expected to be a major part of the rotation and possibly even a starter. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">However, he wasn&#8217;t that impactful in the first and second games coming off the bench, didn&#8217;t play at all in the third and fourth games, and then looked quite uninterested in the final game, even if he was productive. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">It came out of a story via Noah Weber of The Smoking Cuban that Tyler Smith was late to a film session while in Las Vegas, and it was clear after that he wasn&#8217;t trusted by the staff.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">With that, it&#8217;s no surprise that Michael Scotto of HoopsHype revealed that the Mavericks had waived Smith from his two-way contract, giving them an opening. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Smith averaged 4.7 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 12 appearances with the Mavs last season, as he didn&#8217;t sign his two-way contract until late in the year. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">This is another bump in the road for Smith, who was the 33rd overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. However, he only spent one season there before being waived ahead of the 2025-26 season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Smith signed a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets in December, but was only there for about a month, then signed with the Mavs in late February. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01ky0zd3hrn2tk4y3kp7.jpg\" alt=\"Dallas Mavericks forward Tyler Smith\" title=\"Dallas Mavericks forward Tyler Smith\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7s\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 8, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Tyler Smith (23) against the Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Mavericks Have Intriguing Decision Ahead of Them for Open Two-Way<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">The Dallas Mavericks have a few different options that they could explore to fill this open two-way spot. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">The first, and the one everyone will be looking at, is Vsevolod Ishchenko. He was the 56th overall pick of the most recent draft and has yet to sign any contract with the Mavs yet, but he was impressive in the Summer League. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"85\">Dallas may want to see him against a higher level of competition in Europe next year, but with the promise he showed in the Summer League, bringing him over now is absolutely an option. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"88\">They could also use the spot to provide depth to their shallow backcourt. They just traded away Ryan Nembhard and could decide to leave the spot open to see who gets waived elsewhere. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">Sign up to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/mavericks\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/maverickssi?s=21&amp;t=nyCeWGVWMsSpULqWCupqGA\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks concluded their 2026 NBA Summer League last Friday with a 3-2 record. It was one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-380378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}