Mavericks’ decision to pass on Bronny James is aging beautifully

The Dallas Mavericks Summer League team has performed less than ideal so far this July in Las Vegas, as Dallas’ Summer League roster recently moved to 0-3 after losing to the Miami Heat by a score of 92-79. However, we all know that Summer League is more of a tool for evaluating young players compared to something that is about over-analyzing wins and losses, so from that perspective there have still been some bright spots for the Mavericks.

Dallas’ decision to trade up to the No. 51 overall pick in exchange for cash considerations in this past NBA Draft has looked like a solid move thus far, as Dallas’ selection of Melvin Ajinca has proven to be a solid contributor in Summer League for Dallas thus far with his two-way ability on the wing, perhaps even well enough to warrant a roster spot this coming fall.

The Mavericks have also gotten some stellar performances out of some of last season’s two-way contract players in A.J. Lawson and Brandon Williams, so perhaps the Mavericks can find someone that can make a marginal impact on next year’s team through this Summer League session, but only time will tell obviously.

Mavericks’ decision to pass on Bronny James is aging beautifully

One thing that Dallas can definitively be happy about though is the fact that they didn’t draft Bronny James once they traded up in this past year’s draft, as other prospects in that range as well as Ajinca have looked far more NBA-ready compared to James. The Mavericks were reportedly interested in drafting James but decided to go a different direction.

Prospects in Summer League are bound to have inconsistencies as they encounter the speed and intensity of the NBA game, and to James’ credit he’s played fairly well defensively in four Summer League contests, but he’s also shooting an atrocious 30 percent from the field and has made two 3-pointer on 16 attempts in Las Vegas.

James did have his best game of Summer League last night, but it has been a rough start for him to say the least.

Drafting James this past June would’ve served as an intriguing potential ploy to eventually lure his father LeBron James to Dallas, especially given Kyrie Irving’s relationship with him, but the odds of that happening would still be slim even if the Mavericks decided to draft Bronny James.

While many were optimistic about this pipe-dream scenario panning out for the Mavericks given that they had a pick in Bronny’s prospective draft range this past June, Dallas clearly made a wiser choice by selecting Ajinca on all fronts, as he actually fits a positional need and has a slight chance to crack Dallas’ rotation next season.

Hopefully, all goes well for Bronny in Los Angeles for his sake, as Summer League isn’t a tell-all for how a player will look in the NBA as aforementioned, but it looks like the Mavericks certainly dodged a bullet for the time being.

For more on the Dallas Mavericks throughout this Summer League, stay tuned as we will have you covered.