Recent rumors indicate Mavericks youngster may have one foot out the door

Jared A’Latorre

Dallas Mavericks, A.J. Lawson / Sam Hodde/GettyImages

The Dallas Mavericks may soon have to say goodbye to one of their young talents.

It's been reported that the Mavs will look to sign veteran forward Markieff Morris, and this is more of a sign that the team might ship out someone with one spot on the roster left considering that they're also looking to add backcourt depth.

Signing Morris would be an interesting move for the Mavs, considering they have a mostly young core of players, but they would keep intact a key veteran who's shown to be a vocal leader to his teammates.

Mavericks may cut A.J. Lawson to make room for other moves

Dallas being rumored to be interested in the two moves of re-signing Morris and adding depth to their backcourt is fishy considering that there is only one roster spot remaining, and these two rumors combined may mark the end of the road for one Mavs youngster.

A.J. Lawson has just completed his second season in Dallas. He's had time with the Mavericks G League affiliate, the Texas Legends. This year for Dallas, Lawson averaged 3.2 points in 42 games played in the regular season. He also got garbage time action 10 times in the 2024 playoff run.

Considering Lawson's contract is non-guaranteed, this may a be sign that Lawson's time in Dallas may be a wrap.

The Dallas front office has known for weeks that they've had to make a decision to keep Morris or not. Reports have indicated that Morris will be coming back to Dallas on what will likely be a minimum deal, therefore ultimately making a decision to move on with their young forward.

Lawson and another young player, Olivier-Maxence Prosper willheadline the Mavericks in Summer League action.

The Mavericks have seen slow spurts of growth from O-Max. He has lockdown defensive potential while also displaying a nice touch from beyond the arc.

It's possible that with potential growth from O-Max, the team will look to develop him instead of Lawson. Additionally, they get to keep their vocal leader on the team. Morris' teammates have done nothing but complement his presence in the locker room.

For more on A.J. Lawson, Markieff Morris and other free agency news, stay tuned.

Jared A’Latorre

Jared is the Site Expert of Sport DFW, and oversees Dallas sports all the time. He also spent time as a Senior Contributor to The Smoking Cuban, The Landry Hat and Gig Em' Gazette. His work has been featured on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports and MSN. He also covered various sports at Oklahoma State and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Media from Oklahoma State. He's done play-by-play radio broadcasting in North Central Oklahoma and currently does play-by-play radio broadcasting for high school football in North Texas. Jared is also a co-host for Grizzlies Digest, covering the Memphis Grizzlies. In his free time, Jared loves watching sports, spending time with family and friends and watching anything Billy Bob Thornton related.