The 2026 Las Vegas Summer League Dallas Mavericks looked an awful lot like the 2025-2026 Mavericks’ NBA rotation in their opener. There were athletic forwards, multi-tool bench wings, precisely two three-point shooting guards who could not touch the paint without a screen, and one young forward tasked with carrying it all. Morez Johnson Jr may not have the sheer offensive versatility of a Cooper Flagg, but he did his damnedest nonetheless to fill the role. Here are a few thoughts I had about Morez and some
other key contributors to the Summer League squad in their first game against Yaxel Lendebourg and the Golden State Warriors Gold team.
Tobi-Wan a.k.a. The New Project 6’9” Apprentice: Tobi Lawal
Tobi Lawal is a capital “A” Athlete. Offensive rebounds, a crazy put-back slam, a weak-side block, and even a made three; Tobi’s loudest plays exploded off the screen as the springy Brit bounded around the court as if it were a bounce house.
Now, Tobi Lawal is also a capital “Z” Zero-level scorer. He needs to find a way to use his physical gifts to steal morsels of defensive attention until he becomes some semblance of a shooter or scoring threat beyond cuts for lobs. He also needs to continue adding muscle to his frame and reps/experience on defense. His best bet to stick in a winning team’s rotation long-term is to become the kind of defender Derrick Jones Jr or P.J. Washington became, which allowed them to have staying power despite their offensive limitations.
Despite the flaws on display, it was easy to see why Tobi’s tools, infectious energy, and possible development curve having picked up basketball at 16 (only seven years ago!!!) drew Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz to him in the second round of the draft.
Sole Occupant of the “Livin’ Like Larry” Zone: Sergio “Larry” De Larrea
Larry’s handle is unfortunately about as far away as I feared, but as he gets stronger, it should improve. His driving and finishing should also improve as he progresses along this path. His handle was often further from his body than you would like and easily disrupted by bumps and even a carelessly placed dribble or two. However, aside from a loud whiff on an early lob, his passes were on time, on target, and delivered with great touch. Sergio’s lobs were especially sublime, leading to a flashy basket or two for his front-court teammates as he put up five assists to only one turnover.
Larry’s shot, also very unfortunately, did not fall much on this night. While he did continue to shoot when open looks were available, to his credit, a shot diet of mostly spot-up attempts with a few pull-ups, pick-and-roll drives, and cuts mixed in led to a one-for-nine performance from beyond the arc and 3-for-14 from the field overall. The one three-pointer he did hit was a corner catch-and-shoot look sometime in the third quarter. De Larrea’s shot looks fine overall and likely won’t require too much work, but his release will have to get faster. There were too many shot attempts rushed or otherwise altered by an NBA-speed defensive closeout because Sergio took too long to dip, load, and release the ball. The necessary tweaks should come with time and training, but this will be an issue for him to overcome in the short term.
Other than the shot failing him, Sergio played a fine floor game and used his height and length to rack up a steal and a block each on his way to an overall solid first outing for the Mavs.
Rez the Conqueror a.k.a. The Prodigal 6’9” Version 2: Morez Johnson Jr
Morez is a real glass eater on both ends with a very promising close/short mid-range touch. He cranked out a couple of and-one plays on a drive from the right wing in the 4th and a sick lob from Sergio De Larrea towards the end of the comeback that almost was. Rez’ poise in short roll situations, raw strength, agility and activity on defense, relentless effort on the glass, connective passing and flashes of shooting touch combined for a truly inspired debut outing. The sky is the limit for that young man and Cooper Flagg and Dusty May will very likely be the developmental catalyst that sends his game into orbit. Get excited, Mavericks fans!
As amazing an outing as this was for the former Michigan Man, there are a few nits to pick even for him. Rez’ jumper (he made one from three tonight, by the way!) looked smooth enough, but the release needs to speed up to beat pro-level contests. We also need to see him be as willing to shoot it from the wings and corners as he was from the top of the arc out of pick-and-pop situations. The drives to beat slow-footed closeouts were intriguing, but also revealed just how weak his handle is. He will not be able to drive in a straight line even the distance from the wing to the basket until his handle improves a bit. I have faith that he and the coaches will recognize that and work to open that up for him later on.
No matter the nits picked or the game’s result, there is no way to come away from this Morez Johnson Jr performance (against former Michigan teammate and current Summer League stud, Yaxel Lendebourg no less!) feeling anything less than absolutely jazzed. Rez has so much to give the game, so much more to learn about it, and he leaves whatever he has on the floor every night. You can’t not root to see a guy like that back-to-back with Cooper Flagg as they fight off the horde together this regular season.
Baby Driver a.k.a. The Newest Project 6’9” Apprentice: Vsevolod “Seva” Ishchenko
Seva is not yet physically ready for NBA games, but that kid stacks the basket with zero fear, has some craftiness and pace to his drives, and is unafraid to whip risky kick-outs to shooters. He even notched a sick, overhead corner skip pass through traffic to Tyler Smith during the Mavs’ fourth quarter comeback.
Rail-thin as he is, the Russian teen isn’t yet strong enough to consistently absorb contact at/on the way to the rim nor put his defender in jail when called for, but he clearly wants to be. He drives with the confidence of a player twice as strong and even swerved his way to an and-one, a layup under the rim with a bump to the back, and a couple of trips to the free-throw line for his troubles.
Seva’s game and physique both clearly need some fine-tuning, but the bones (and I do mean bones) of a truly intriguing Swiss-army-knife role player are there for those with the eyes to see.
New Max Christie: John Poulakidas
Poulakidas has a burner from three as advertised. Doesn’t have much else at the moment, but that’s okay for now. John has two jobs: Shoot threes. Make Threes. Everything else is secondary for him, and despite a cold start, he did just that once he got rolling. With Poulakidas’ performance to close last regular season (even in silly season) and Tarik Biberovic on his way across the sea to gobble up a portion of the Mavs’ non-taxpayer Mid-level exception, Cormack Christie may not have much room to slump for another 30 games. At least, he won’t have much room to do so and demand much in the way of a contract extension, which he’ll be due for soon.
JJ Barea’s Spiritual Successor: Ryan Nembhard
Ryan ran the offense, as was required for this inexperienced group. He seemed less aggressive as a scorer (despite shooting 15 times) than last summer league. Wonder how much of that is his role in the actual NBA games he played overriding the confidence he should have against the newer summer league players. He was likely following the marching orders given to him, but no one on this team could touch the paint off the dribble consistently except Seva, so I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of that grabbing the defense’s attention from Nemby.
That said, aside from the team-wide shooting woes and smoking an open layup or two, Ryan played an excellent floor game. 11 assists to only two turnovers is good business from the older guard. He also has clearly added some needed muscle since we last saw him in the regular season. Those muscles unfortunately didn’t lead to him being able to force the issue towards the rim much or stop L.J. Cryer from lighting him on fire in the third quarter.
Ryan’s playmaking and turnover suppression were impressive, and we will have to hope that the shooting (for the whole team) levels out to emphasize just how far ahead of most summer league guards he is in those areas.
The Summer League Mavericks have already given us so much to be intrigued by and so much to wring our hands over. We’re likely to witness five games of elite Summer League overreactions on both ends of the spectrum. There will be games, like this one, where Morez looks like a world beater. There will be games where the team can’t throw it into the ocean from three. There will also be moments and games when Morez looks a bit lost (à la Dereck Lively II in his rookie year), and other team members step up. I can’t guarantee how many of which and when we’ll get them, but I can guarantee that I’ll be watching. You should too.
