Dallas Mavericks: Josh Reaves’ summer league highlights are very impressive

Perhaps the best surprise from the Dallas Mavericks summer league team was undrafted rookie, Josh Reaves, who showed what he is capable of on both ends of the court.

The Dallas Mavericks were in the top 8 teams from the NBA 2019 Summer League this year, grabbing the 6-seed overall and a spot in the winners bracket. Although they fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Mavs put a handful of guys on the court that look very promising and could potentially find their way to the league one day.

Cameron Payne was the best player on the team, which makes sense considering how much time he has spent already playing in the NBA. He now has another NBA contract with the Toronto Raptors. After Payne, it would take some convincing for me to believe anyone other than Josh Reaves was the best player on that Mavs team. His ability to play intelligently and tenaciously on both ends was big for Dallas.

Reaves played his college ball at Penn State and was one of the best defensive players in the Big 10 and in the country overall. He definitely seems to be a potential NBA player simply for his defensive ability.

In the summer league, Reaves started to show a potential shot blossoming from his game. His three-point percentage wasn’t bad for college, but it was no secret that most did not expect it to translate into the NBA.

The summer league is obviously not the premium level of competition, but the fact that he was able to hit with some regularity (36.4% over last 4 games) may be a hopeful sign for things to come.

It will be interesting to see what role Reaves plays with the Mavs going forward. I don’t think he will earn the final roster spot with the team, but there is a good chance he could land one of the two-way contract spots. He certainly outplayed Daryl Macon and Kostas Antetokounmpo.

The Mavs roster may not feature any rookies this year, but there is a good chance that the G-League team could do well with many of these young guys. Although Isaiah Roby and Reaves have a lot of college experience, the G-League would still offer them a lot of good basketball to play to continue to grow their game.

No matter what happens, Reaves had a great summer league performance and will likely get to carry that right into Mavs training camp while they continue to weigh their options for the remaining roster spots.