Raymond Felton: ‘Fresh start’ with Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks made a big trade ahead of the 2014 NBA Draft, sending four players and two second-round picks to the New York Knicks for center Tyson Chandler and point guard Raymond Felton.

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Most of the focus has been on Chandler, who was a key piece in the Mavericks 2011 Championship team. That doesn’t mean Mavericks fans should over look that addition of Raymond Felton, who is happy to get a fresh start.

“It’s just a fresh start for me,” Felton said, via ESPN Dallas. “I loved it here in New York. New York was great to me. The fans, but it’s just a fresh start. A lot of things happened last year. It’s going to be good to just put all that behind and just move on and start off fresh.”

Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said that they’ve had success in the past with players coming off bad years with something to prove, and hope Felton can repeat that.

“I think we’ve had a lot of success over the years in guys that went through a hard year previously,” Nelson said. “You look at Jerry Stackhouse when we acquired him. Here’s a guy that probably a lot of folks wouldn’t have touched. Nick Van Exel is another. You go down the line, we’ve done a pretty good job of bringing guys like that into the fold, having them buy in.

“Raymond has been through some tough times. It’s no secret that he’s made some mistakes and he wishes that he had them back. It’s no secret that he’s gone through some difficult times in New York. We certainly have the kind of locker room that has done good with those kind of players in the past.”