The Dallas Mavericks opened their Summer League season Saturday afternoon with a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unfortunately, they could not emerge victorious.
Dallas lost the game to Oklahoma City 91-80 and started their season with a tough loss to a solid Thunder Summer League squad led by Chet Holmgren.
Holmgren was the second pick in the 2022 NBA draft but missed all of last season due to an injury. Now he’s going into his first year in the NBA with very high expectations.
The 21-year-old rookie finished the game with 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks while shooting 5 of 10 from the floor and 1 of 4 from long range.
However, it was newcomer Cason Wallace who stole the show from the Thunder. The youngster finished the evening with 20 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals on 7 of 15 shots from the field and 6 of 10 shots from the three-point line.
The Mavericks also had a solid lineup of players, but there were also some players who had a hard time finding their footing in their Summer League debut.
With Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving at the helm next year, Dallas has used this break in the season to balance the roster and inject solid forces into its core group.
The Summer League provides the team with an opportunity to identify young talent and find people who could contribute to solid development projects or, ideally, on day one.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at three guys and two duds from the Mavericks’ first Summer League game.