Mavericks guard Felton to return for final year of contract

Dallas Mavericks guard Raymond Felton exercised his player option for the 2015-16 season.

Felton played in 29 games, including three starts, with the Mavericks last season and averaged 3.7 points and 1.4 assists in 9.7 minutes per game.

Felton, who turns 31 on Friday, will earn $4.54 million next season. He would have become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 had he opted out of his contract.

Felton barely had time to find his niche with the Mavs last season. In Dallas’ second preseason game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Felton suffered a severe right high ankle sprain, putting him behind the other point guards in the rotation.

Felton didn’t play his first game with the Mavs until Dec. 28. And that was after he served a four-game NBA-mandated suspension for pleading guilty to a gun charge for an incident which occurred last year in New York while he was playing for the Knicks.

Drafted by Charlotte in the first round (fifth overall pick) of the 2005 NBA Draft, Felton holds career averages of 12.7 points, 6.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 33.3 minutes in 696 career games with Charlotte, New York, Denver, Portland and Dallas.

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 9:20 PM.