Reports: Mavericks agree to contract with Wesley Matthews
Portland Trail Blazers free-agent shooting guard Wesley Matthews agreed in principle late Thursday night to a four-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks, NBA.com and ESPN.com reported.
Matthews, coming off surgery for a torn left Achilles tendon, was offered a four-year, $64 million deal by the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, but still preferred Dallas as his destination, ESPN.com reported.
The 6-foot-5 former Marquette standout, a native of San Antonio, was reported as wanting to play alongside another Mavericks target, 6-11 center DeAndre Jordan, and decided not to take the Kings’ offer.
The Associated Press reported that financial terms of Matthews’ deal with the Mavericks will depend on whether Jordan decides to join him in Dallas.
Jordan finished a meeting Thursday night with his current team, the Los Angeles Clippers, and Yahoo! Sports reported on Twitter that it was “truly 50-50” between the Mavericks and the Clippers, according to a source.
The Mavericks can pay Jordan a maximum of $81 million over four years.
Matthews, a six-year NBA veteran, played 60 games last season before suffering the ruptured Achilles tendon in a game against the Mavericks on March 5.
He finished the season with averages of 15.9 points an 3.7 rebounds on 33.7 minutes a game.
A bulldog defender and potent 3-point shooter, Matthews would fill a guard spot vacated by Monta Ellis, who agreed Thursday to a four-year, $44 million deal with the Indiana Pacers.
The fourth year of that contract has a player option that would allow Ellis to become a free agent after the 2017-18 season.
Ellis joins Tyson Chandler and Al-Farouq Aminu as players on the Dallas roster last season who have agreed to free-agent contracts elsewhere. Chandler agreed to a four-year, $52 million contract with Phoenix, and Aminu is headed to Portland via a four-year, $30 million deal.
Ellis played the past two years for the Mavericks and led them in scoring (18.9) and steals (1.9) last season. But last week he opted out of the final year of his contract, which would have paid him $9.08 million next season.
Despite Ellis’ decision to opt out, coach Rick Carlisle said he would gladly welcome the 6-foot-3, 185-pounder back if things didn’t work out for him financially in free agency.
The Mavericks’ principal go-to guy last season, Ellis carried a heavy offensive load for Dallas and only missed two of a possible 164 games during his two-year tenure in Dallas.
If Jordan decides to sign with another team, the Mavs’ backup plan is to pursue Indiana center Roy Hibbert in a possible sign-and-trade involving Ellis, Yahoo! Sports reported.
At 7-2 and 290 pounds, the 28-year Hibbert is slow afoot, but still adds muscle inside the paint.
But Hibbert is mostly attractive to the Mavs because he’s approaching the final year of a contract that pays him $15.5 million during the 2015-16 season. The 17th overall pick of the 2008 draft, Hibbert averaged 10.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in 25.3 minutes per game last season.
Besides Jordan, the remaining seasoned centers still available on the free-agent market are Robin Lopez (Portland), Kosta Koufos (Memphis), Kendrick Perkins (Cleveland), JaVale McGee (Philadelphia) and Samuel Dalembert (New York).
Lopez reportedly has agreed to take an offer from the Knicks if the Knicks don’t land Jordan.
Meanwhile, other than Ellis, Chandler and Aminu, two other players who started last season with the Mavericks secured free-agent deals this week. Jae Crowder will re-sign with Boston for $35 million over five years, and Brandan Wright agreed to a three-year, $18 million contract with Memphis.
The Mavericks traded Crowder and Wright to Boston on Dec. 18 in a deal that brought point guard Rajon Rondo to Dallas. Rondo, also a free agent has the Kings among the list of teams he’s considering.
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Reports: Mavericks agree to contract with Wesley Matthews."