Nuggets' Ryan Nembhard signing shows Mavericks rushed his standard contract

Ryan Nembhard's time with the Dallas Mavericks ended far earlier than expected when the team traded him to the Atlanta Hawks earlier this summer for Zaccharie Risacher, and he has been on multiple teams since then. The Hawks traded him to the Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte then waived him, and now he's on a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets.

Nembhard signed with the Nuggets earlier this week — but he didn't sign a standard contract as he did with Dallas near the end of last season. He's on a two-way deal, just like he was for most of last season, and this raises the question of whether the Mavs made the right decision to give him a standard contract when they did.

Dallas should've kept Ryan Nembhard on a two-way

There were rumors that Dallas was looking to convert Nemby's two-way deal to a standard contract long before he actually signed the deal, but his brief free agency this offseason revealed that teams didn't have much interest in him on a standard contract. There were multiple teams that showed interest in him, but it was two-way interest rather than interest in getting him on their 15-man roster.

Nembhard's new two-way contract with Denver shows what the Mavericks should've done all along: not sign him to a standard deal and keep him on a two-way. Their decision didn't seem bad at the time, and hindsight is 20/20. He thrived as a starter and averaged a rookie-high 5.3 assists per game, but still, there was always a reason to question whether this contract would pan out.

Undersized guards typically have a hard time sticking in the NBA, and while Nembhard isn't on his way out of the NBA by any means, teams didn't have enough faith in his performance as a rookie to offer him a standard contract. If Dallas had never converted his two-way, and allowed him to hit free agency this summer, they likely would've had a good chance to retain him.

The Mavericks could've used Nembhard's playmaking

Instead, they traded him to acquire Risacher. This move was a steal by the Mavericks, but they're going to miss the playmaking that Nembhard provides. He was one of the best passers on the team as a rookie, and Dallas' backcourt behind Kyrie Irving is thin heading into the first year of the Dusty May era.

He would've likely had a guaranteed role in the rotation if they had held onto him, as the guards behind Irving are Sergio De Larrea and Marcus Sasser. De Larrea has good potential and Sasser should benefit from a new scenario, but Nembhard just averaged 6.6 points and 5.3 assists per game and started 27 games.

He would've been ready for whatever role May assigned him, as he is already familiar with many of Dallas' current players. His chemistry with Cooper Flagg was strong, and keeping him would've given them another player to add to their young core.

Nembhard will now have a shot at doing the same thing in Denver, but it's impossible not to think about his future in Dallas if they never converted his two-way contract. They would've had the chance to sign him again on the same contract, but now, they're forced to see him develop elsewhere.

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