This week the Dallas Mavericks, like many fellow NBA teams, started to intensify their preseason basketball activities as the Dec. 22 start to the regular season grows closer.
At face value, a shortened preseason coupled with a condensed regular season seems a disadvantage for league rookies, especially two-way players like former Buffalo Tyler Bey, whose performance over the next few weeks will dictate whether he begins the year with the Mavericks or is assigned to Dallas' G-League affiliate, the Texas Legends, based in Frisco.
For Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle, Bey, along with all of Dallas' first-year players, coming from the college ranks to the NBA has an inherent period of acclimation attached to it.
“We have five or six rookies in camp," Carlisle said. "The big adjustment for all of them is the spacing of the NBA game — the three-point line being further out, the fact that in the NBA we liberally encourage taking three-point shots and we encourage spacing well beyond the arc of the three-point line."
"A lot of these guys are kind of tightroping it and so they get a little scrunched...I think that’s an immediate adjustment that college players have to make."
Bey was initially drafted at No. 36 overall by Philadelphia but that pick, along with Josh Richardson, was soon sent Dallas' way in exchange for Seth Curry.
Far from just happening to be the No. 36 pick that was part of the Richardson/Curry deal, Carlisle indicated that bringing Bey into the fold was by design, as Dallas sought to acquire new assets to bolster its play in the defensive zone.
"Defensively, he was one of the highest-rated defenders in college basketball last year and probably the year before, as well," Carlisle said. "The biggest theme we’ve had this offseason has been getting better defensively. We were able to trade for James Johnson, who’s a high-level defender. We traded for Josh Richardson, who’s a high-level defender."
"We draft Tyler Bey, who as I mentioned, was a top two or three (defender) in all of college basketball...We liked Bey and we felt that he was pretty undervalued at the 36th pick.”
While Bey's credentials as a robust defender were cemented when he was named the 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Carlisle also was quick to recognize Bey's growing offensive potential.
"Tyler’s a smart kid, he loves defense and he loves competing," Carlisle said. "I was just spending some time with him on his shooting, which has gotten better — he’s worked extremely hard at it."
Late this past weekend, the Mavericks began doing full five-on-five scrimmages and exercises for the first time during camp.
For Bey, who aims to be on the Mavs' bench by the time their season-opener against Phoenix on Dec. 23 rolls around, absorbing as much information as possible has been his approach in training camp.
“I’m really just trying to find my role — getting to know the guys, asking questions, learning and like I said, learning my role and making sure that I’m playing it right," Bey said. "I’m always ready to come up, whether it's the G-League or whatever."
His former coach at Colorado sees bey as chock full of athletic ability and defensive acumen but that being said, far from impervious in the sense of needing to get some solid ground under him as a new NBA player.
"Understanding Dallas’ system, what they’re running and what they expect of him — having an understanding of what that looks like — I think will be a period of adjustment for Tyler, as it is for most rookies coming into the NBA," Tad Boyle said. "Hopefully he can adjust there pretty quickly."
"But other than that, I think his athleticism, his speed, his jumping ability, his defensive ability — I think he’s ready to play. But some of these other things, the intangibles, are what Tyler’s going to have to adjust to. I’m sure he will.”
Being willing and going out of his way to ask questions was something Bey talked about repeatedly during his first appearance with Mavericks reporters following Sunday's practice.
He named the 33-year-old power forward Johnson, who in his first year with the Mavs enters year 13 in the league, as the veteran he's been learning the most from.
“You’ve got to have a really good mentality when it comes to paying attention and asking questions," Bey said. "You’ve got to want to learn. I think the biggest jump for me is really getting used to and getting a feel for things for offense and defense — just watching what’s going on around me.”
To Boyle's point about Bey needing to understand what it is that the Mavericks want out of him, Carlisle provided a pretty clear answer on that front.
"In the near term, the key for him will be to develop into a dependable 'three and D' guy," Carlisle said. "That’ll help get him on the floor and he’ll have to play two positions — he’ll have to know the three and the four. It’s unlikely he’ll play much five."
"The three and the four are significantly different. That may be a little bit challenging but I think his IQ for the game and how he sees the game — I don’t think he’s going to have a problem.”
.....
FIN
It was cool getting the chance to speak with Carlisle recently to hear his first impressions of Bey now that full organized practices are heating up. I don't think he could have really been clearer when it came to detailing Bey's route to seeing minutes with the team quickly.
As for Bey himself, he appears to be in full sponge mode, as he should. As Carlisle said, it'll be a challenge for him to get proficient playing at both the 3 and 4 with the Mavs. Of course, transitioning to an NBA roster, given the kind of player Bey is, was never going to be a cake walk.
If anything, the language used by Carlisle and Bey indicates that he's learning and that there's faith in him to continue doing so. Not a bad first SitRep on Bey following his first media availability with Dallas.
I hope his knowledge of the game and comfortability with Dallas' system continues to grow.
At face value, a shortened preseason coupled with a condensed regular season seems a disadvantage for league rookies, especially two-way players like former Buffalo Tyler Bey, whose performance over the next few weeks will dictate whether he begins the year with the Mavericks or is assigned to Dallas' G-League affiliate, the Texas Legends, based in Frisco.
For Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle, Bey, along with all of Dallas' first-year players, coming from the college ranks to the NBA has an inherent period of acclimation attached to it.
“We have five or six rookies in camp," Carlisle said. "The big adjustment for all of them is the spacing of the NBA game — the three-point line being further out, the fact that in the NBA we liberally encourage taking three-point shots and we encourage spacing well beyond the arc of the three-point line."
"A lot of these guys are kind of tightroping it and so they get a little scrunched...I think that’s an immediate adjustment that college players have to make."
Bey was initially drafted at No. 36 overall by Philadelphia but that pick, along with Josh Richardson, was soon sent Dallas' way in exchange for Seth Curry.
Far from just happening to be the No. 36 pick that was part of the Richardson/Curry deal, Carlisle indicated that bringing Bey into the fold was by design, as Dallas sought to acquire new assets to bolster its play in the defensive zone.
"Defensively, he was one of the highest-rated defenders in college basketball last year and probably the year before, as well," Carlisle said. "The biggest theme we’ve had this offseason has been getting better defensively. We were able to trade for James Johnson, who’s a high-level defender. We traded for Josh Richardson, who’s a high-level defender."
"We draft Tyler Bey, who as I mentioned, was a top two or three (defender) in all of college basketball...We liked Bey and we felt that he was pretty undervalued at the 36th pick.”
While Bey's credentials as a robust defender were cemented when he was named the 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Carlisle also was quick to recognize Bey's growing offensive potential.
"Tyler’s a smart kid, he loves defense and he loves competing," Carlisle said. "I was just spending some time with him on his shooting, which has gotten better — he’s worked extremely hard at it."
Late this past weekend, the Mavericks began doing full five-on-five scrimmages and exercises for the first time during camp.
For Bey, who aims to be on the Mavs' bench by the time their season-opener against Phoenix on Dec. 23 rolls around, absorbing as much information as possible has been his approach in training camp.
“I’m really just trying to find my role — getting to know the guys, asking questions, learning and like I said, learning my role and making sure that I’m playing it right," Bey said. "I’m always ready to come up, whether it's the G-League or whatever."
His former coach at Colorado sees bey as chock full of athletic ability and defensive acumen but that being said, far from impervious in the sense of needing to get some solid ground under him as a new NBA player.
"Understanding Dallas’ system, what they’re running and what they expect of him — having an understanding of what that looks like — I think will be a period of adjustment for Tyler, as it is for most rookies coming into the NBA," Tad Boyle said. "Hopefully he can adjust there pretty quickly."
"But other than that, I think his athleticism, his speed, his jumping ability, his defensive ability — I think he’s ready to play. But some of these other things, the intangibles, are what Tyler’s going to have to adjust to. I’m sure he will.”
Being willing and going out of his way to ask questions was something Bey talked about repeatedly during his first appearance with Mavericks reporters following Sunday's practice.
He named the 33-year-old power forward Johnson, who in his first year with the Mavs enters year 13 in the league, as the veteran he's been learning the most from.
“You’ve got to have a really good mentality when it comes to paying attention and asking questions," Bey said. "You’ve got to want to learn. I think the biggest jump for me is really getting used to and getting a feel for things for offense and defense — just watching what’s going on around me.”
To Boyle's point about Bey needing to understand what it is that the Mavericks want out of him, Carlisle provided a pretty clear answer on that front.
"In the near term, the key for him will be to develop into a dependable 'three and D' guy," Carlisle said. "That’ll help get him on the floor and he’ll have to play two positions — he’ll have to know the three and the four. It’s unlikely he’ll play much five."
"The three and the four are significantly different. That may be a little bit challenging but I think his IQ for the game and how he sees the game — I don’t think he’s going to have a problem.”
.....
FIN
It was cool getting the chance to speak with Carlisle recently to hear his first impressions of Bey now that full organized practices are heating up. I don't think he could have really been clearer when it came to detailing Bey's route to seeing minutes with the team quickly.
As for Bey himself, he appears to be in full sponge mode, as he should. As Carlisle said, it'll be a challenge for him to get proficient playing at both the 3 and 4 with the Mavs. Of course, transitioning to an NBA roster, given the kind of player Bey is, was never going to be a cake walk.
If anything, the language used by Carlisle and Bey indicates that he's learning and that there's faith in him to continue doing so. Not a bad first SitRep on Bey following his first media availability with Dallas.
I hope his knowledge of the game and comfortability with Dallas' system continues to grow.
