Jonathan Gibson a Roster Lock?

Is Mavs owner, Mark Cuban , dropping subtle hints that partial guaranteed rookie Jonathan Gibson is a lock for a roster spot?

Dallas, in building off their trend from last season, decided to hand out partial guaranteed, multiple-year deals to players to get them locked into training camp come the fall.

Last year, they bought in Salah Mejri, Maurice Ndour and others while the number only increased this year.

But could one of them already have a final roster spot locked down?

With the addition of young, veteran players in Seth Curry and Quincy Acy, the roster spots in Dallas are suddenly coming down to the wire as training camp gets underway in a couple of months. With each team able to take 20 players to camp, only 15 players can emerge after camp on the final 15 man roster.

As of this moment, 19 players are under contract in Dallas, with one training camp spot still open.

Counting the locked-in veterans, along with Curry, Acy, and newly drafted A.J. Hammons, that gives Dallas just two roster spots up for grabs between the rest of the guys. But the way Cuban has been talking, one of them could be a lock for a spot.

In an interview with Cowlishaw and Mosley on The Afternoon Show, Cuban had this response when referring to how the team could be better this upcoming season.

“You never know until you know. That’s why we play the games. If you look at last year you look at New Orleans, you look at Houston, you just don’t know. I would have told you last year, and I think I did tell you guys, that we’re about eight sprained ankles away from being a top contender. Now we’re probably only three, maybe four. You just don’t know. Look at Portland and what happened there. You just don’t know. 

But I do think we’re a better team. I know we’re far better defensively. I know we’re far more athletic. I think we’ve got more athletic depth. We will miss at some point the Ray Felton’s. There will be game situations where having that veteran presence would have been nice to have. But I really think between J.J. [Barea], Devin [Harris] and D-Will we’ll make up for a lot of that. I think the explosiveness and the scoring punch of Jonathan Gibson and Seth Curry will more than make up for it.”

Obviously, for any Mavs fan, the last sentence sticks out to you since Cuban is casually dropping Gibson’s name like he is already part of the rotation. Even though it is just one sentence, could Gibson already be locked in as part of the team next year?

Combine this with the fact that Cuban broke the news himself during the summer league as he was on air in Las Vegas talking about how excited they were to sign him and how good he thought he was…all before anyone knew that Dallas had reached an agreement with him.

Next: Throwback Thursday: Mavs Take Down Blazers in 2011

So is Jonathan Gibson all but guaranteed a roster spot for this upcoming season? I wouldn’t use the word ‘guaranteed’, but by the looks of things, it looks like Gibson will be a member of the 2016-17 Dallas Mavericks.