Mavs Summer League Standout A.J. Lawson Signing with Timberwolves: Details

Did the Mavs drop the ball on yet another easy decision?

Dalton Trigg | Jul 19, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks finished NBA Summer League play in Las Vegas with a 0-5 record. Despite not being able to get in the win column, the Mavs saw some promising flashes from some of their young prospects, including No. 37 pick Jaden Hardy, who has already been signed to a three-year rookie deal, and A.J. Lawson, who many figured would be a strong two-way contract candidate for Dallas.

However, that ship has sailed for the Mavs, as The Athletic reported on Tuesday that Lawson is signing a two-way contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The former South Carolina Gamecock was arguably the Mavs’ most impressive player in Vegas, as he averaged 15 points and six rebounds per game while shooting 52 percent from the field, including 50 percent from deep.

Not only was Lawson an effective offensive threat, but he also showed potential on defense as well. He’s 6-6 with a 6-7 wingspan, 22 years old, and is already able to navigate through screens well despite his slender frame. Why the Mavs didn't view him as being worthy of a two-way contract is only something they can answer. ... Or perhaps it was another Jalen Brunson situation on a smaller scale, where Lawson simply chose another team due to potentially having a bigger role.

With Lawson now out of the picture, it appears that 26-year-old Tyler Dorsey could be the next player to receive a two-way contract from the Mavs, according to multiple reports.

The 6-5 Olympiacos shooting guard was a second-round pick in the 2017 draft, but hasn’t played in the NBA since 2019. In three years playing overseas, Dorsey has averaged 11.4 points per game while shooting 39.7 percent from 3-point range.

Dorsey reportedly impressed the Mavs in a recent private workout. We'll see if anything becomes official in the coming days.

Published Jul 19, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.