Dallas Mavericks: Dwight Powell reportedly declining option, will become free agent

Dwight Powell has reportedly decided to decline the player option for his final season on his contract with the Dallas Mavericks, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

The Dallas Mavericks have a lot more questions than answers this summer, but they are all slowly getting answered as we get closer and closer to the NBA Draft and free agency. One of the questions many have been wondering is how the team will handle Dwight Powell‘s contract and whether or not he would be back next year.

Powell answered part of the question earlier today when he decided that he would decline his player option on the final season of his contract and enter free agency. This report comes via Chris Haynes, an NBA Insider for Yahoo! Sports.

This report does come as a bit of a surprise as many believed that Powell would take the option and work towards an extension of some sort with the Mavs prior to next season. Instead, Dwight becomes yet another question for Dallas to answer with their not-so-limited funds this free agency period.

Dwight Powell has gone from the throw-in young player with Rajon Rondo, to an overpaid, underperforming big, to a key part of the Mavs core and someone fans continually overlook for just how good he can be. My first memories of Dwight Powell were him missing lob passes, trying to lay it in despite being a foot over the rim and not being able to take contact from anyone.

Now, he has possibly the best hands on the team, can finish through traffic with force and has become an incredibly solid piece for the Mavericks. This could all be an issue with this news that he is entering free agency.

It is probably a safe bet that Powell will be back with the Mavs next year. Mark Cuban talked earlier this year about wanting to bring Powell back with an extension and I doubt that anything has changed with that. My guess is that he will be earning something similar to what he would have if he had taken his option, plus some added years on the back end.

Dwight has been an important part of this team, and even though his three-point shooting can be painful at times, I hope that the Mavericks do choose to bring him back again for the future. If not, we wish him all the best going forward.