Stanford’s Terry lands in Dallas as second-round pick
After one season in Palo Alto, Tyrell Terry is headed to Dallas.
The Mavericks took the Stanford freshman with the first pick of the NBA draft’s second round, No. 31 overall on Wednesday night.
Terr y averaged 14.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists in his freshman season with the Cardinal, earning All-Pac-12 honors. He shot 44.1% from the field and 40.8% from 3-point range, giving NBA scouts hope he can stretch the floor.
“Tyrell Terry can really shoot the basketball,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. “That’s what really sets him apart.”
But with concerns about his slight 6-foot-2 frame, Terry slid out of the first round. Terry put on some bulk in draft prep, but he still weighed in at just 170 pounds at the NBA combine.
Terr y’s scoring average was the second most for a Stanford freshman, and his 89.1% shooting from the free- throw line is fifth in school history for a single season.
Beyond his shooting, Terry has shown off other offensive polish as a surprisingly solid finisher for his size and good feel for finding open teammates. In Dallas with Luka Doncic, he’ll see much less of the ball than he did as Stanford’s lead offensive generator.
The Mavericks shipped Seth Curry to Philadelphia on draft night in exchange for Jason Richardson and the No. 36 pick, so Terry may slot in to replace the shooting lost in that deal.
His top game with Stanford was Feb. 26, when he knocked down 7 of 11 shots from 3-point distance en route to 27 points in a Cardinal win over Pac-12 foe Utah.
HORNETS’ LAMELO BALL INSTALLED AS ROY FAVORITE >> LaMelo Ball lost out on the competition to be the first overall pick in Wednesday’s draft, but he is the early favorite to win Rookie of the Year honors.
Ball fell to the Charlotte Hornets with the third pick after the Minnesota Timberwolves opted for guard Anthony Edwards with the No. 1 pick and the Warriors went with center James Wiseman at No. 2.
Ball joins a Hornets team that finished 10th in the Eastern Conference last season. He brings immediate star power to Michael Jordan’s franchise and has been installed as the +400 favorite by DraftKings to win Rookie of the Year honors.
Edwards, who was considered a safer pick for the Timberwolves, is close behind at + 450. Dayton’s high- f lying Obi Toppin landed with the New York Knicks at No. 8, winning one bettor at the sportsbook $13,000. He is +600 to win ROY honors along with Wiseman. OFFSEASON SPRINT CONTINUES WITH FREE AGENCY STARTING >> N BA f ree agency is usually a weeklong frenzy. Deals get struck, then teams and players must wait a few days before they can sign those contracts. And from there, a few more months often pass before the player goes to work with his new club.
Not this year. What promises to be a chaotic free-agent window opens at 3 p.m. today, just a couple days after the NBA draft, a mere 42 hours before signings can begin and about a week and a half before training camps around the league open. Asked what the player-movement landscape might look like in such a compressed timeframe, Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey — looking exhausted early Thursday as the draft was winding down — offered a blunt prediction.
“Completely insane,” Morey said.
Anthony Davis of the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers is the biggest name on the free-agency board; he turned down his option for this season with the Lakers but isn’t expected to go anyplace else. The most likely scenario for Davis is a three-year deal worth as much as $105 million, the last year at his option. That way, when he completes his 10th year of service in 202122, he can cash in again for an even higher percentage of the salary cap than he can command now.
More than 100 other NBA players are unrestricted free agents; another 75 or so can be restricted free agents.