Immense opportunity awaits Perry Ellis at Las Vegas summer league

By Staff     Jul 8, 2016

Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) pulls back for a two-handed jam over Kansas State guard Barry Brown (5) during the second half on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Four years worth of work with Kansas basketball wasn’t enough to get Perry Ellis drafted into the NBA. Now the 22-year-old forward has a few days in Las Vegas to secure a spot in the league the hard way.

A free agent playing for the Mavericks’ summer league entry beginning Saturday night, Ellis will try to convince the same coaches and executives who passed on him on draft night that he actually belongs on a regular-season roster.

Right now, the people Ellis needs to impress the most are Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle and owner Mark Cuban. The Mavs’ Vegas team will focus on the development of second-year wing Justin Anderson and second-round draft pick A.J. Hammons, a 7-foot center out of Purdue. However, while speaking to media members earlier this week, [Cuban made it sound][1] as if the other summertime Mavericks won’t be an afterthought for the organization.

> “We’ve got a bunch of roster spots,”
> Cuban said Wednesday, in a video
> posted on the Mavs’ website. “We put
> our money where our mouth is in cap
> room, so there’s a lot of spots for
> guys to make, and they know if they do
> what we expect them to do, probably
> three guys, maybe four, from this
> group are gonna make the team.”

Cuban made that statement as Ellis and other Dallas hopefuls worked behind him. It has to be a strange dynamic for all the players except Anderson and Hammons. The rest are not only trying to play well, but also, in a sense, beat out the guys next to them for a coveted roster spot or training camp invite.

Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) works against UCLA forward Tony Parker (23) and UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton during the second half, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015 at Lahaina Civic Center in Lahaina, Hawaii.

So who is Ellis playing with/competing against? Here’s a look at the rest of the Mavericks’ Vegas lineup, excluding the aforementioned Anderson and Hammons:

– *Chane Behanan*, 6-6 forward from Louisville

– *Vander Blue*, 6-4 guard from Marquette, who has played in 5 NBA games (none since the 2014-15 season)

– *Kyle Collinsworth*, 6-6 guard from BYU

– *Dorian Finney-Smith*, 6-8 forward from Florida

– *Jonathan Gibson*, 6-2 guard from New Mexico

– *Isaiah Miles*, 6-7 forward from St. Joseph’s

– *McKenzie Moore*, 6-6 guard from UTEP

– *Giovan Oniangue*, 6-6 forward from Congo

– *Satnam Singh*, 7-2 center from India (Mavs’ Round 2 pick in 2015)

– *Jameel Warney*, 6-8 forward from Stony Brook

[Dallas hasn’t retained undrafted rookies][2] from its summer teams of late, but if what Cuban said is true, this year could be different.

Ellis, a 6-foot-8 All-American who averaged 17 points and shot 53.2% from the field in his senior season at Kansas, surely understands the scope of what he could do for his professional career in the days ahed.

> “You know, I’m just going to come out
> here and play hard,” Ellis told the
> Mavs’ website. “It’s a great
> opportunity for me. You know, it’s an
> honor to be here, and I just want to
> go out here and just play my game and
> play with a high energy.”

It sounds as if Dallas expects Ellis to fit in nicely with this makeshift unit that spent the past few days practicing together. The Mavericks’ summer league head coach, Jamahl Mosely, hailed the Jayhawk’s college résumé as a strength that should help Ellis and the Vegas version of the Mavs.

> “He’s played a great amount of
> basketball,” Mosley said on the team’s
> website. “I mean, he played four years
> in college, and he’s very experienced.
> He knows how to play the game, so I
> think that’s going to be a big key for
> us. He knows how to play, he’s in the
> right position, and he makes the
> simple and easy play.”

Regardless of what transpires on the floor in Vegas, the Mavs likely won’t need any of these free agents to play critical roles in their regular-season rotation. But Cuban appears more inclined to give one or more of them a roster spot than he has in the past.

> “We want to have a good crew of young
> guns that we develop,” the Dallas
> owner said.

If Ellis fits in as seamlessly as Mosley suggested and goes on scoring tears like he did at KU, the Wichita native just might land a spot in the NBA next season after all. And Ellis knows how significant this business trip to Las Vegas will be for his future. His first game is Saturday night against Miami (9 p.m., NBA TV).

In typical Perry Ellis fashion, he said his main focus for his summer league experience will be to play well and play hard.

> “We’ll go from there,” he added, “and
> see what happens.”

[1]: http://www.mavs.com/mavs-summer-league-big-man-perry-ellis-looks-forward-to-proving-his-worth-in-las-vegas/?utm_source=TW&utm_medium=ORG&utm_content=Inside_report&utm_campaign=EARL_070616
[2]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/smithology/2016/jun/28/examining-perry-ellis-chances-with-the-d/

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