The Dallas Mavericks are in a way better position right now than most people would have expected as they are 14-11 and a top five team in the Western Conference through more than a quarter of the season. With trade rumors circulating for almost every NBA team at the moment, the Mavericks are one of very few teams who have not come up much in these rumors. One player who is reportedly drawing some interest though, is rookie Justin Anderson, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.
Anderson was Dallas' first round pick (21st overall) in this most recent draft and the Mavericks have reportedly been getting some informal interest from other teams about him but they have "rebuffed" all of that interest to this point. The Mavericks are an older team that needs to stockpile assets and young players so trading Anderson at this point wouldn't exactly be wise.
Owner Mark Cuban believes that rookie contracts are set to become extremely valuable as the cap is set to rise so that also plays a factor in them not wanting to trade Anderson. Cuban said rookie contracts will "look like gold" as the cap continues to skyrocket so Anderson will continue to have value as he gets more time in the league.
The 22 year old rookie out of Virginia is currently out of Dallas' rotation as they have plenty of depth in the backcourt. The Mavericks have been playing four point guards every game and now that Wesley Matthews and Chandler Parsons are getting back to full health Anderson's minutes have really dried up. On the season the 6 foot-6 shooting guard has appeared in 16 games, one start, and has averaged just 6.4 minutes per game.
In college Anderson was known as a great defensive player whose offensive game got better and better with each successive year, especially his jump shot. Anderson has a chance to be a very good NBA player but right now he is stuck on a fairly deep roster that is playing pretty good basketball. The Mavericks would be wise to hang on to Anderson because trading him wouldn't bring back anything that would make them championship contenders. Right now his value isn't very high so he is worth more to the Mavericks as a future asset than anything he would be able to bring back in any sort of trade.
