Mavericks
Walter Clayton Jr. is starting his second NBA season with his third team. That’s a lot of introductions for a guy still trying to get his career going.
But Clayton likes where he landed. After being waived by the Grizzlies, he chose the Mavericks over several interested teams and signed a two-way contract Wednesday, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
“Obviously, we’ve got some younger guys and then we’ve got some very older guys that we can learn from who have been doing it for a while,” Clayton said. “So I think it’s just a good group, good core. I think we can make something special out of here.”
The former first-round pick has already made stops with the Jazz and Grizzlies. Dallas offers another chance to establish himself, with Kyrie Irving among the veterans who can help him figure things out.
Knicks
Mike Brown can live with missed shots. Getting pushed around is a tougher sell.
The Knicks coach wasn’t pleased with his team’s physicality during its first two losses, particularly the effort required to fight through screens against the Celtics on Friday, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
“It was a physical ballgame and [the Celtics] had the advantage out there with the physicality,” Brown said.
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Meanwhile, Mikal Bridges has started 2-of-16 from the field and missed all seven of his threes. Brown’s instruction? Keep taking the open ones.
“I mean, he had three or four wide-open threes, and obviously we want him to make half of them if they’re open,” Brown said, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “But he’s got to keep shooting and hopefully they’ll eventually go in sooner than later.”
Two games is a small sample. Still, the Knicks could use a few makes from Bridges and a little more resistance from everyone.
Spurs
The Spurs are also 0-2, and their new starting backcourt hasn’t found much rhythm.
The three-guard combination of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper was outscored by 11 points in 11 minutes together during Friday’s loss to the Rockets, according to Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports.
Iko writes that San Antonio remains too dependent on Victor Wembanyama, who has struggled with his shot, while reliable outside shooting has been scarce beyond Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie.
There’s plenty of talent here. Getting it to work together is the assignment, and having Wembanyama rescue every difficult possession isn’t much of an offensive plan.
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