Ray Spalding will get the chance to shine with Phoenix Suns

A numbers crunch caused Ray Spalding to be waived in Dallas. Now he’ll get another opportunity with a young team to prove he’s an NBA caliber big man.

Sometimes in the NBA, teams have to make tough decisions on players at the end of their bench when opportunities come along. For the Dallas Mavericks, acquiring a superstar like Kristaps Porzingis, and role players Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee, and potentially taking the next steps in competing again meant making a tough decision on coveted roster spots. That meant making the move to release rookie forward, and former Louisville star, Ray Spalding.

Releasing Spalding, who had only appeared in one game for the Mavericks, was a tough call after the team traded for him during the 2019 NBA Draft, due to his potential at 21 years old. But when the Mavs made the move for Kristaps Porizingis, a legit NBA big man superstar, it signaled the end of the rebuild for the team and the beginning of building a contending team around the former Knicks big man and rising superstar rookie Luka Doncic.

The Mavericks made the tough call to waive Spalding and his bright NBA career was suddenly on hold. But fortunately it didn’t last long as the Phoenix Suns are reportedly signing Spalding to his second NBA contract.

After being drafted 56th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers and subsequently traded to the Mavericks on draft night, it was obvious that Spalding was viewed as a long term project. With several bigs on the roster, including Dirk Nowitzki, Spalding was expected to develop in the G-League. That he did.

Appearing in 29 games (starting 21) for the Texas Legends, Spalding quickly showed everyone what the fans at Louisville had known for three years – his potential was endless. He averaged 15.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 2.5 blocks per game, shooting 51% from the field.

Spalding shined bright on the defensive end of the floor, an area where he was expected to star, but it was the offensive end where he showed the most improvement. Through the 29 games he played, Spalding had a 54% true field goal percentage, and 53% effective field goal percentage, two stats that showed his high efficiency. The area where he did struggle however was from the 3 point line, shooting just 23% (9/39) deep.

The deal is only for 10 days, which will force Spalding to prove rather quickly whether or not he’d be capable of being a role player in the NBA. Signing with the front court depleted Suns and the NBA’s worst team, there will be ample playing time right away for the rookie big man.

The NBA is a cut throat league and often times players with promising futures get caught in the middle of roster shakeups, but for Spalding the opportunity to get playing time on a team without much pressure of succeeding, could help him restart his NBA career.