Dallas Mavericks: Dorian Finney-Smith “Out a While” With Tendonitis

Second year forward, Dorian Finney-Smith, is “out for a while” with tendonitis in his knee.

Last training camp, undrafted forward Dorian Finney-Smith found himself making the final roster in Dallas where he would be sitting on the end of the bench learning from the established vets in front of him.

Except that wasn’t the case.

Dirk Nowitzki got hurt and the undrafted Finney-Smith was thrusted into the starting lineup where he would start 35 games for the Mavericks and appear in 81 games on the season.

Heading into the 2017-18 season, Finney-Smith was thought to have a bigger role on the team as the Mavericks bookended their roster with bigs and guards. Finney-Smith was one of the only wings on the roster that could play both the three and the four.

After appearing in the first five games of the season where he would log sporadic minutes, Finney-Smith didn’t play the next two games and was inactive the next four games after that.

Now, after appearing in the last three games, Finney-Smith is being shut down for a bit.

As for the reasoning, the Mavericks are officially listing Finney-Smith with tendonitis in his knee.

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Even though Finney-Smith wasn’t logging heavy minutes off the bench on a nightly basis, this puts the Mavericks in an interesting spot in regards to backup three minutes.

Devin Harris has gotten minutes at the three off the bench and Dallas has even went big at times with Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber at the three at some points. As Seth Curry is still out with an indefinite timetable, Dallas is getting thinner in their second unit.

The Mavericks will most likely keep Gian Clavell, one of their two-way contracts, on the roster for the foreseeable future.

Dallas could also look to the free agent market, or even the recently released Mindaugas Kuzminskas, for help on the wing depending on how long Finney-Smith will be out.

Next: Mavericks Looks For Win in San Antonio

For the 2-12 Dallas Mavericks, this is just another blow to their rotation as they look to turn things around.