The Dallas Mavericks entered free agency with a massive need at point guard. Kyrie Irving is expected to miss up until at least January or February as he recovers from a torn ACL in March.

Every team knew the Mavs needed a point guard, but they didn't have much financial flexibility to play with. If not for Irving opting out of his player option to sign a longer deal that knocks his salary cap hit down for this season, Dallas wouldn't have had much money to spend. But, because he did, they had the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception open and available to spend.

With that money, the Mavericks went out and targeted D'Angelo Russell, who agreed to sign a two-year, $13 million contract, soon after free agency negotiations opened on Monday, per ESPN's Shams Charania. Russell was an All-Star in his first stint Brooklyn Nets in 2019, and has been teammates with Anthony Davis and Max Christie on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Since becoming an All-Star, Russell's career has taken a strange path. He was included in the sign-and-trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Nets, sending Russell to the Golden State Warriors, and he was traded soon after to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins.

After a few seasons with the Wolves, he was traded back to the LA Lakers in 2023, where he was drafted second overall in 2015. His scoring and shooting started to drop off in the last few seasons, and he was traded back to the Brooklyn Nets last season for Dorian Finney-Smith.

In 58 games split between the Lakers and Nets, Russell averaged 12.6 PPG and 5.1 APG, shooting 39% from the floor and 31.4% from three. He is Dallas' 15th player under contract, but rumors have circulated that they could look to trade a player in order to bring back Dante Exum for more guard help.