Dallas Mavericks: J.J. Barea officially signs veteran minimum contract

The Dallas Mavericks have made another signing official, announcing yesterday that J.J. Barea will definitely be back in a Mavs uniform for another year.

When the Dallas Mavericks take the court for the first time in the 2019-20 NBA season, there will be only one Maverick left who was part of the 2011 championship team. J.J. Barea is the final holdout from the 2011 Dallas Mavericks title winning team still with the Mavs and only he and Ian Mahinmi remain in the NBA as a whole.

The Mavs announced yesterday that the signing of Barea for another year is now official. The team and J.J. agreed on a one-year, veteran minimum contract for the 2019-20 season and will likely re-evaluate with the team again next summer.

Much of this short contract can be attributed to Barea’s recent achilles injury. With a serious injury like that, it makes sense that the Mavs are playing it safe with the now longest tenured Mavericks player, but if he shows he can get back to mostly where he was before, don’t be surprised if the Mavs sign him once again.

There is definitely a loyalty factor with J.J. Barea. Obviously he never did for the team what Dirk Nowitzki did, but he was a part of the title team and has been a constant presence running Rick Carlisle‘s offense from the bench.

The Mavs choice to bring Barea back was not surprising to any of us, but it will be a relief to see him back again next year, hopefully fully healthy and ready to be the floor general once again. If he doesn’t get back to that point, then we can be glad that he is there as a mentor for some of our younger guards.

The Dallas Mavericks have officially filled almost the entire roster at this point and the team is looking good. Putting pen to paper with Barea was among the final things left to do to for the team this summer and now we wait and prepare for preseason.