The Mavericks extended qualifying offers to Doug McDermott, Salah Mejri and Yogi Ferrell.
Then, Dallas – to sign DeAndre Jordan – pulled qualifying offers for McDermott (who came out ahead with the Pacers) and Mejri (who settled for the minimum to return to the Mavericks). Somewhat surprisingly, Dallas kept Ferrell’s $2,919,204 qualifying offer intact.
Tim MacMahon of ESPN:
Mavs expect guard Yogi Ferrell to play for $2.9M qualifying offer this season, per source. Team will be patient looking for bargains with $4.4M cap-room exception or remaining cap space. Dirk will get exception or rest of cap space, whichever is more.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) July 7, 2018
The Mavericks have several point guard types – Dennis Smith Jr., Luka Doncic, J.J Barea, Jalen Brunson and presumably Ferrell. But Rick Carlisle uses a pair of them in the backcourt often enough that Ferrell should still play regularly.
The 25-year-old is a good scorer, but his size limits him defensively, and he’s only a so-so distributor. He has already made a nice career for an undrafted player, and the starter criteria pushed his qualifying offer higher.
But Dallas expecting him to accept his qualifying offer – rather than finding a multi-year deal with him – suggests he’s viewed as just a temporary piece there. With Smith and Doncic, that makes sense.
