Dallas Mavericks: Justin Anderson Out of the Rotation?

With much hype surrounding the second season of Justin Anderson in Dallas, Anderson found himself at the end of the bench for the entire game against the Indiana Pacers.

After helping the Mavs make a playoff push as a rookie last year, Justin Anderson was looked at by many to make a huge sophomore jump in his second season. But with the Mavericks sitting at the bottom of the league over the first 20 games, most of the things they imagined are up in the air.

Including the sophomore jump of Justin Anderson.

With Dirk Nowitzki missing 17 of the first 22 games of the season, Dallas was forced to move Harrison Barnes to the power forward spot from the very beginning. This naturally paved the way for a new starting small forward, but it wasn’t Justin Anderson being called upon. It was undrafted forward Dorian Finney-Smith.

Finney-Smith, not Anderson, has went on to start 14 games in Nowitzki’s absence as he has given Dallas a versatile defensive weapon that can guard multiple positions. Anderson has found himself coming off the bench, but in a role that has steadily decreased.

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Before Friday’s game against the Pacers, Anderson has logged under 20 minutes in each of his last four games with two of those games under 15 minutes. But Friday night was the surprising moment when Anderson received a DNP-CD where he never checked into the game.

Instead, it was undrafted forward Nicolas Brussino that came off the bench and logged 12 minutes of play. When Carlisle was asked about why Anderson didn’t play after the game, Carlisle had this to say to the media.

“With Brussino in there, it really kind of knocks somebody out. So I just decided to go with this group tonight,” Carlisle said.

He never really answered the question as we all know Brussino got his minutes.

Who would have ever guessed before the season that two undrafted forwards in Finney-Smith and Brussino would be logging minutes ahead of Justin Anderson? Nobody, that is who.

Whether this was a one game stint or not, it brings up some thoughts on how Dallas views Anderson moving forward.

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With the Mavs heading to Houston on Saturday for a back-to-back, it will be worth monitoring how Carlisle distributes those minutes between Anderson and Brussino.