The Dallas Mavericks announced Saturday that they are converting Ryan Nembhard’s 2-way contract into a standard 2 year deal. The contract will feature a team option for the 2026-27 season.
The move comes on the heels of the team waiving veteran guard Tyus Jones, allowing the team to call up Nembhard from the G-League. The Canadian guard figures to play a reserve role, but should factor into the team’s rotation coming in off the bench.
Because of injuries, there was a 16-game stretch from late November to early January where he was in the starting lineup and averaged 9.6 points, 6.1 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 threes across 24.9 minutes per game. With Cooper Flagg (foot) currently dealing with an injury, and the team having announced that Kyrie Irving wouldn’t suit up this season, there’s a world in which the 22 year old sees some meaningful minutes down the homestretch of the schedule.
Nembhard went undrafted out of Gonzaga at the 2025 NBA Draft, but quickly signed a two-way deal with Dallas afterwards. Earlier this season the former Bulldog told reporters “I’ll let my agents and everybody figure [the contract] out…Obviously that’s there, and obviously I’m on a two-way. But at the end of the day, if I go on the court and handle business and do my job at a high level, then that will take care of itself when the time comes. So I’m not too concerned about that. I’m just trying to win games and enjoy hooping.”
The 5’11” guard hasn’t appeared in a game for the Mavericks since February 5th as he was sent back to the Texas Legends of the G-League. That move was largely procedural as the rookie was approaching the 50 game limit, and the team wanted to ensure he had all the minutes he could handle as their NBA team got healthier.
However, because of a rash of injuries, and trade deadline deals, the Mavs suddenly found themselves thin at the guard position, paving the way for Nembhard to rejoin the NBA club.
Dallas had been operating without a “true” point guard for the last several games, using a combination of Naji Marshall, Max Christie, Klay Thompson, and Brandon Williams to fill the void. Nembhard figures to see a decent amount of minutes coming his way for a 21-38 Mavericks squad that has little to play for over the final 23 games of the season.
Up next for Dallas is a 8pm ET showdown on Sunday with the defending champion OKC Thunder.
Photo: Jeff Attaway. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.