Dallas Mavericks will sign veteran forward David Lee
Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Sunday night that the Dallas Mavericks had come to terms with David Lee on a free-agent contract.
Lee cleared waivers at 4 p.m. Sunday and quickly turned his attention to joining the Mavs, who beat the Philadelphia 76ers 129-103 on Sunday night at American Airlines Center.
To make room for Lee, the Mavs waived guard John Jenkins.
Needing help on the front line, the Mavs are ecstatic about the addition of Lee, who helped the Golden State Warriors win last season’s NBA title.
“David Lee will be signed, hopefully, tomorrow morning,” Carlisle said. “He arrived tonight. We’ll get him ready in the next couple of days and hopefully he’ll be ready to play some against Oklahoma [City].”
We think he can play both big positions — some power forward and some backup [center].
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle on new addition David Lee
After running their record to 30-27 with the win over the Sixers, the Mavs will play Oklahoma City on Wednesday.
Lee (6-foot-9, 245 pounds) was waived Friday by the Boston Celtics and will sign a prorated cap room exception contract worth $2.1 million with the Mavs on Monday.
In 30 games this season for the Celtics, Lee averaged 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds. He averaged just 15.7 minutes per contest. For his career, Lee has averaged 14.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
Also, Lee recorded his season high of 14 points in only 15 minutes when the Celtics lost to the Mavs on Nov. 18.
“We think he can play both big positions — some power forward and some backup [center],” Carlisle said. “I just think he’s a quality veteran player who’s been in a situation at Boston where they were overstocked and decided to go with younger guys, and we believe he can help us.”
Meanwhile, even before it was official that the Mavs were going to release him, Jenkins had a hunch he was going to be the odd-man out.
“It’s part of the business,” Jenkins said. “It is what it is. I can’t help it. Going through it is tough.”
Apparently it also was tough for Carlisle to waive Jenkins, who averaged 3.3 points and played in just 21 games this season for the Mavs.
“We just met as a team in the locker room and I personally thanked John Jenkins on behalf of myself, the franchise, [owner] Mark [Cuban], everybody, for representing this team with pure class,” Carlisle said. “He’s established real value for himself in this league and I’m pretty sure he’s going to get picked up.”
Carlisle has always raved about how close the players are in the locker room, so he’s wary about losing one of the 15.
“This is a tough situation,” Carlisle said. “You don’t want to let anybody go with a locker room like we have.
“My hope is that sometime in the future we can have him back here, because he played well when he was here. It’s just it’s strictly a numbers game and there’s some other considerations, but he’s been a great asset to our culture and to our team.”
Now, the Mavs are hoping Lee can also be a great asset to their culture.
West’s woes
According to TMZ, former Mavs guard Delonte West was found wandering the streets of Houston with no shoes and wearing a hospital gown.
TMZ quoted a fan as asking West: “Are you Delonte West?” West was quoted as saying: “I used to be, but I’m not about that life anymore.”
West played for the Mavs during the 2011-12 season.
Dwain Price: 817-390-7760, @dwainprice
This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Dallas Mavericks will sign veteran forward David Lee."