Category: Dallas Mavericks Blog

The Dallas Mavericks have signed forward Theo Pinson to a 10-day contract under the COVID-related hardship allowance.

Pinson (6-5, 212) spent the past two seasons with the New York Knicks after signing with the Brooklyn Nets as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2018. Pinson spent the beginning of this season with the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League, where he was averaging 16.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game across 12 appearances (all starts). Pinson played four years at the University of North Carolina prior to entering the NBA and helped the Tar Heels win the 2017 NCAA Championship.

Pinson will wear #1 for the Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have waived forwards Justin Jackson and EJ Onu.

The Mavericks’ roster now stands at 17 players heading into the team’s regular season opener at Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 21.

The Dallas Mavericks have signed forwards Justin Jackson and E.J. Onu.

Jackson (6-8, 220) was the 15th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings and holds career averages of 6.6 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists with Sacramento, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee. The Houston native was previously traded to the Mavericks on Feb. 6, 2019 in a deal that sent Harrison Barnes to the Kings and finished that season with the Dallas in the NBA bubble. Last season, Jackson won an NBA championship as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Onu (6-11, 230) went undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft after four years at Shawnee State where he was named First Team NAIA All American while leading the Bears to an NAIA championship. Onu played in four games for the Mavericks at the MGM Resorts Summer League in Las Vegas averaging 1.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per contest.

The Dallas Mavericks have waived forward Feron Hunt, guard Carlik Jones and guard Tyrell Terry.

Hunt (6-8, 195) went undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft after three seasons at Southern Methodist University. He played in all four preseason games for the Mavericks averaging 5.3 points and 1.8 rebounds.

Jones (6-1, 185) went undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft after a college career at Radford and Louisville. The Cincinnati native played in all four preseason games and averaged 6.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

Terry (6-2, 170) was the 31st overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft by the Mavericks. Terry appeared in 11 games as a rookie last season.

The Dallas Mavericks have signed rookie free agent guard JaQuori McLaughlin to a two-way contract.

And in an additional move, Dallas has requested waivers on center EJ Onu.
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McLaughlin (6-4, 190) signs with Dallas after going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft. He finished his collegiate career at UC Santa Barbara, where he helped the Gauchos win the Big West regular season and tournament titles in his senior year. He averaged 16.0 points (.488 FG%, .408 3FG%), 3.5 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game en route to being named the Big West Player of the Year and an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American in his final collegiate season.

In his five-year collegiate career, which included time at Oregon State, McLaughlin averaged 11.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.0 steals and 32.8 minutes in 126 games (123 starts). McLaughlin is just the third player in UC Santa Barbara history to score 1,000 or more points and dish out 300 or more assists.

The Port Angeles, Washington, native averaged 19.3 points, 9.1 assists and 5.5 steals per game as a senior at Peninsula High School and was named Washington Mr. Basketball, an award that has also recently been awarded to Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr.

McLaughlin will wear #30 for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks roster now stands at 19 players.

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd has finalized his coaching staff.

Igor Kokoskov (EEE-gore KO-kosh-kov) joins the Mavericks after having spent the last year as head coach of the Turkish League’s Fenerbache. Kokoskov led Fenerbache to a 20-16 EuroLeague record. The team fell to CSKA Moscow in the EuroLeague playoffs. In Turkish League play, the team tallied a 22-8 record before losing to EuroLeague champion Anadolu Efes in the league finals.

Kokoskov, who owns the distinction of being the first non-American to be a full-time NBA assistant coach, has more than two decades of NBA coaching experience. He joined the L.A. Clippers as an assistant in 2000 before spending five years (2003-08) in Detroit, where he won the 2004 NBA championship. He also served assistant coaching stints with Phoenix, Cleveland, Orlando and Utah before being named head coach of the Suns, a post he held for the 2018-19 season. Prior to returning to Europe, Kokoskov spent the 2019-20 season in Sacramento. The University of Missouri hired Kokoskov to their full-time coaching staff in 1999 as he became the first European to hold that position in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.

The Serbia native is the head coach of the Serbian National Team. He also coached the national teams of Georgia and Slovenia, coaching Mavericks All-Star Luka Dončić and leading the team to the 2017 EuroBasket title.

Sean Sweeney previously worked with Kidd in Milwaukee and Brooklyn. He most recently spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Pistons and the prior four as an assistant with Milwaukee. Sweeney’s NBA career began with the Nets, where he started as video coordinator before being named assistant coach in advance of the 2013-14 season.

Earlier in his career, Sweeney was the video coordinator for the University of Northern Iowa and the director of basketball operations at the University of Evansville. He also held assistant coaching positions at the Anoka Ramsey Community College (Cambridge, MN) and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. The Saint Paul, Minnesota, native played one season at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay before transferring to the University of St. Thomas (Saint Paul) where he was a three-year starter and earned all-conference honors as a senior in 2005-06.

Jared Dudley transitions to an assistant coaching role following a 14-season NBA career. Dudley spent the last two seasons of his playing career with the L.A. Lakers, winning the 2020 NBA title.

Over his career, Dudley played for Charlotte (2007-08), Phoenix (2008-13, 2016-18), the L.A. Clippers (2013-14), Milwaukee (2014-15), Washington (2015-16), Brooklyn (2018-19) and the Lakers (2019-21). Dudley, who grew up in San Diego, owns career averages of 7.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 22.3 minutes in 904 games (286 starts). He was selected 22nd overall by the Bobcats in the 2007 NBA Draft.

Dudley was a four-year starter at Boston College and averaged 15.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.4 steals in 36.4 minutes over 130 games for the Eagles. As a senior, he was the ACC Player of the Year, Second Team All-America and All-ACC First Team. Dudley garnered Big East Most Improved Player and All-Big East First Team honors following his sophomore season after being selected to the Big East All-Freshman Team a season earlier.

Greg St. Jean (j-EE-n) comes to Dallas after spending two seasons as a player development coach and advance scout with the L.A. Lakers, helping the organization to the 2020 NBA championship alongside Kidd.

St. Jean was an assistant coach for St. John’s University for four seasons. Prior to his time with the Red Storm, St. Jean spent two years with the Kings as an assistant player development coach and two summers with the Nets. St. Jean recently coached the Mavericks summer league team in Las Vegas.

The Bay Area native was a three-year team captain at Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT). His father Garry St. Jean was head coach of the Kings (1992-97) and the general manager of the Golden State Warriors (1998-2004).

Kristi Toliver began her NBA coaching career with the Washington Wizards, where she spent two seasons (2018-20) while concurrently playing for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. Toliver, a 12-year WNBA veteran, has played more than 350 games (275+ starts) with Washington, the Chicago Sky and the Los Angeles Sparks. This season, she’s averaging 9.7 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 18 games (all starts) with the Sparks.

Toliver, who hails from Harrisonburg, Virginia, won two WNBA championships with L.A. (2016) and Washington (2019). She’s garnered several league honors and is a three-time WNBA All-Star (2013, 2018, 2019), 2012 Second Team All-WNBA and the 2012 WNBA Most Improved Player.

Toliver also played professionally in Europe during the WNBA offseason, including stints with Raanana Hertzeliya (Israel), MKB Euroleasing Sopron (Hungary), Samsun Canik Belediyesi (Turkey) and Dynamo Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg (Russia). She’s been part of six Russian League championships with Dynamo (2013, 2014) and UMMC (2015-18). Toliver was a standout for the University of Maryland, winning the NCAA championship in 2006. Among her many accolades, Toliver finished her career as the 2009 ACC Player of the Year.

Darrell Armstrong, God Shammgod and Peter Patton complete Kidd’s coaching staff. Armstrong will begin his 13th season with the Mavericks, while Shammgod and Patton begin their sixth and fourth seasons, respectively, with the organization.

The Dallas Mavericks have waived guard Nate Hinton.

Hinton (6-5, 210) went undrafted in the 2020 NBA Draft after two seasons at the University of Houston and signed with Dallas as a two-way player on Dec. 1, 2020. He played in 21 games for the Mavericks last season.

Most recently, Hinton played for the Mavericks at the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League in Las Vegas where he averaged 7.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals in five games (all starts).

The Dallas Mavericks have signed rookie free agents Feron Hunt, Carlik Jones and EJ Onu.

The contracts are likely all non-guaranteed deals that merely bring the players to Mavs training camp.

Hunt (F, 6-8, 195) spent four seasons at SMU. In 78 games (41 starts), Hunt averaged 9.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 0.86 blocks and 26.3 minutes while shooting 55.7% (300-539 FG) from the field. Among SMU leaders, he finished his career ranked fourth in field goal percentage, 32nd in rebounds (533) and T-17th in blocks (67).

Hunt attended DeSoto High School in suburban DFW and averaged 11.2 points and 7.1 rebounds as a senior.

Jones (G, 6-1, 185) finished his collegiate career at Louisville, where he was an All-ACC First Team selection and the 2020-21 AP ACC Rookie of the Year. Jones became the first person in Louisville history to reach double figures in his first 17 games as a Cardinal.

Prior to joining Louisville, the Cincinnati native played three seasons at Radford and was named the 2019-20 Big South Player of the Year after being the only NCAA Division I player to average at least 20.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists that year.

Onu (C, 6-11, 240) played 125 career games (64 starts) over four years at Shawnee State in Portsmouth, Ohio. Onu averaged 12.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.2 blocks last season en route to helping Shawnee State to the NAIA championship.

The Richmond Heights, Ohio, native finished his 2020-21 campaign as a First Team NAIA All-American, the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year and a First Team All-Mid-South Conference selection. He also garnered his third consecutive Mid-South Conference Defensive Player of the Year award. Onu finished his career as Shawnee State’s all-time leader in blocks (529).

The Mavericks training camp roster stands at 20 players.

The Dallas Mavericks have signed rookie free agent forward Eugene Omoruyi to a two-way contract.

Omoruyi (6-6, 235) signs with Dallas after going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft. He finished his collegiate career at Oregon, where he earned All-Pac-12 First Team honors, after playing three seasons at Rutgers. In his four-year collegiate career, Omoruyi averaged 9.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 22.8 minutes in 121 games (72 starts).

As a senior, Omoruyi averaged a team-high 17.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 30.6 minutes while shooting 47.3% (174-368 FG) from the field, 37.6% (41-109 3FG) from behind-the-arc and 76.5% (91-119 FT) from the foul line. He was the only Duck to start all 28 games and helped lead Oregon to the Sweet 16.

Born in Benin City, Nigeria, Omoruyi and his family moved to Canada when he was a toddler. He attended Orangeville Prep in Orangeville, Ontario, where he played high school basketball with future NBA lottery picks Jamal Murray and Thon Maker.

Omoruyi (oh-moh-ROO-yee) will wear No. 2 for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks roster now stands at 17 players.