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♬ original sound – First Things First on FS1

For demented basketball enthusiasts, Summer League is the pinnacle of the NBA’s annual slate of offerings. It has everything a twisted, roundball-obsessed mind could want: future stars, obscure players, sloppy play, Yao Ming sightings, rabid fans, and the ubiquitous questionable decisions that come with Las Vegas. It’s amazing.

The Dallas Mavericks begin their eighteenth Las Vegas Summer League sojourn next week. Practices start in Dallas on July 8 and run through July 10. The team then decamps for the desert tournament and plays its first of five scheduled games on July 13. Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley will again helm the summer squad, coaching a roster made up of familiar and not-so-familiar names.

Roster

A.J. Lawson and Olivier-Maxence Prosper headline the team. Lawson earned a standard NBA contract with Dallas last season after a stint as a two-way player. Prosper was the No. 24 overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft. He saw action in 43 of the Mavericks’ regular and postseason games last season.

Two of the Mavericks’ two-way players from last year, Brandon Williams and Alex Fudge, are also headed to Vegas. They’ll join Melvin Ajinca, the No. 51 overall selection in the 2024 NBA Draft, who Dallas acquired in a draft-night trade with the Knicks, as the team’s more notable names.

The roster also includes Warith Alatishe, T.J. Clark (no, not the acclaimed art historian), Jaz Gortman, Xavier Johnson, Ricky Lindo Jr., Jarod Lucas, Emanuel Miller, Jamarion Sharp, Justin Webster, and Isaiah Whaley.

Schedule

Dallas will play at least five games during Summer League. The Mavs play their first game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday, July 13, at 9:30 p.m. CT. They’ll continue play, facing the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, July 15, at 7 p.m. CT; the Miami Heat on Wednesday, July 17, at 2 p.m. CT; the Boston Celtics on Friday, July 19, at 3:30 p.m. CT; and a fifth game that will be announced later.

Summer League 2024 features all 30 NBA teams and will take place July 12-22 at the Thomas & Mack Center and Pavilion on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. Each team will play at least five games, and after each team’s first four games, the top four teams will advance to participate in the playoffs, beginning with a semifinal doubleheader on Sunday, July 21.

The two winning teams from the semifinal games will meet in the championship game on Monday, July 22. The four playoff teams will be determined by winning percentage in each team’s first four games, with tiebreak criteria available here. The 26 teams that do not advance to the four-team playoff will play a fifth game on Saturday, July 20 or Sunday, July 21.