Dallas Mavericks have added guard-forward Ding Yanyuhang to their team. Yanyuhang has been playing for China’s Shandong Golden Stars for the last seven seasons and his impressive stats have earned him a move to the NBA.
Yanyuhang played in the Mavs summer league teams in 2017
The full details of the deal have not been released yet but he promises to be a good signing for Mavs, having picked up two consecutive Chinese Basketball Association Domestic MVP awards. Mavs fans should recognise the name, as he played on their Orlando and Las Vegas summer league teams last year.
A Golden Star in China
Yanyuhang is one of China’s greatest basketball talents and has represented his nation in the Olympic Games, as well as other international competitions. There are suggestions that he could be part of a two-way deal, given that Mavs just traded Johnathan Motley to LA Clippers, to open up a two-way slot.
Ding’s stats are fairly impressive – averaging 26.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in the last season. With the Mavericks playing an exhibition game against Philadelphia 76ers in China in a few months time, it would make good commercial sense to sign up a player that Chinese basketball fans are familiar with and who has a good following there. His stats were not quite that good in the summer league but his form in China is definitely something to be excited about.
Other Mavs news – Nowitzki signs one year deal
Other news coming out from the Mavs is that Dirk Nowitzki has re-signed on a one-year deal that will take him to 21 seasons with Dallas, which surpasses Kobe Bryant’s record for most consecutive seasons with the same team. It is likely to be his last season after he recently turned 40 but he has another record in his sights – Wilt Chamberlain’s fifth place in the all-time leading scorer charts.
