Mavs are 'blown away' by undrafted rookie Josh Reaves

Although the Dallas Mavericks didn't have a first-round pick in the draft back in June, the team still came out of it feeling as if they 'got their guys,' so to speak. And as our Dalton Trigg notes, one of "their guys'' wasn't even drafted at all.

The Mavs front office already really liked Isaiah Roby before the draft began, so when they were able to trade back from the 37th pick to the 45th pick, still draft Roby, and add two future second-rounders, which eventually helped them land Delon Wright in a sign-and-trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, you can imagine how happy that made them.

It wasn't a huge splash, but it was a good splash, given where they were picking at.

However, the biggest hidden gem might not even come from that chain of events listed above. Josh Reaves, a 6-5 senior shooting guard out of Penn State, signed an Exhibit-10 contract with the Mavs after going undrafted in June. Despite the lack of fanfare around the signing initially, Reaves proceeded to offer up a heck of a performance at the Las Vegas Summer League, not only showing off his defensive abilities, but his surprising athleticism as well.

"We are extremely happy with Josh," newly signed Texas Legends Head Coach George Galanopoulos told us on a recent episode of The Step Back podcast. (Listen here:)

"He's a great kid. ... When you look at him and the way that he plays, what stands out, obviously, is his defense, both off-the-ball and on-the-ball. He's already an NBA-level defender. ... He does things that you just can't teach."

Galanopoulos then went on to talk about that surprising athleticism Reaves displayed in Las Vegas.

"The thing that surprised me a little bit was how athletic he was," said Galanopoulos. "He got UP. Whether it was his warmups or a couple of fast breaks for big time dunks. And it's not the dunks that are impressive, but just more that explosiveness. When a player shows that more than once, and relatively regularly, it's there. That means that explosion, that athleticism, the ability to play the game that way with that sort of burst is there, and that's important in the NBA."

"Josh has amazing instincts and has the ability to impact the game on the defensive end already," Mavs owner Mark Cuban told DallasBasketball.com. "Now we have to improve his other skills, which we are confident we can do."

"He's got an incredible work ethic, he's a great guy," Galanopoulos continued with his praise of Reaves, who in late July was rewarded with a 2-way contract. "He shot the ball relatively well. Obviously, that's something he needs to sharpen up (overall), which we're confident he will. He was already working at it at Summer League, working with coaches. He's very coachable. ... We're confident he can get to that point where he becomes a knock-down three-point shooter."

Another interesting nugget we discovered about the Reaves signing is that the Mavs apparently saw something while scouting him that other teams didn't. When asked why Reaves went undrafted in June, Galanopoulos genuinely couldn't pinpoint a reason.

"Not sure, to be honest," said Galanopoulos. "But we're happy he did (go undrafted), obviously, in the sense that he came to us. There were a lot of guys who were in love with him in our organization. ... We had him a lot higher on our board than others did. Sometimes that happens. There's guys that, every single year, they slip through the cracks."

The Mavs have been great in these last few years finding talent in the undrafted player pool, with Yogi Ferrell and Dorian Finney-Smith being part of that group.

Although Reaves has a way to go before he can establish himself as an NBA player, he has the talent, and probably just as important, he has the full confidence and support from the franchise who gave him an opportunity to shine this summer.

"He's a great kid, and he's very, very talented," said Galanopoulos. "We're just excited to have him."

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