Dallas Mavericks: What is J.J. Barea’s Role?

As a new look Dallas Mavericks team prepares for the upcoming season, questions of what will happen with J.J. Barea have begun to surface.

The Dallas Mavericks are getting closer and closer to another NBA season and with it, fans are still asking a lot of questions about the new team. With many different moves being made over the summer, the Dallas Mavericks have a new look roster but also bring back a lot of names.

Of course players like Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, and Wesley Matthews have their roles solidified on the squad, but what happens with guys like Devin Harris and J.J. Barea? That’s the question I had.

The addition of Seth Curry to the Mavs is going to pay dividends to the team and the possible gem of Jonathan Gibson joining Dallas could be influential as well. So what do the Mavericks do with the little Puerto Rican this season?

Any number of things could happen with Barea and the Mavericks this year. Keeping his spot as the primary backup to D-Will seems like the most likely option for J.J., especially considering his level of play in Williams’ absence last season.

There is no doubt that Seth Curry is going to get his time on the court though. Curry is a more natural two guard but is also very undersized. Can the Mavs afford to have him and Barea on the court at the same time.

If they can’t, it is not a complete impossibility that Dallas could look to trade Barea during the season. J.J. has a friendly contract and at least a few good years still to come for him. Teams looking for some veteran leadership and a spark off the bench could find that and more from Barea.

I find it unlikely that Dallas will part ways with him though.

If I were to guess, I think that Gibson will find himself as the odd man out in the group of Mavs guards this year. As good as he was in the summer, he will need to prove without a doubt that he can do the same thing at the NBA level before he brings any serious value to the Mavs.

That leaves Seth to jump into a more Raymond Felton type role, being used wherever needed to bring a scoring punch to the Mavs while Barea and Harris run a bit of a three-man rotation with him in place for the starters. That is what I expect to see.

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At this point, it just seems unlikely for Dallas to do anything that would take J.J. Barea out of the rotation. With as good as he has been for us in the past, expect to see the same fireball off the bench as we are used to every year.