Mavericks front office intrigued by Satnam Singh
The Dallas Mavericks made a surprising pick in the second round with the selection of 19-year-old center Satnam Singh in the NBA draft Thursday night. Owner Mark Cuban and General Manager Donnie Nelson are interested in the potential the 7-2 first Indian-born player brings to the team.
"He's huge," Cuban said. "He's enormous. What we really liked about him, believe it or not, is when he came in here he really could shoot the ball. He was one of the better 3-point shooters that we brought through, and it was shocking but true. The guy is a knock-down shooter."
While Satnam may be impressive with his three-point abilities, Nelson sees Singh earning his worth with the Mavericks organization from a grassroots level.
"Clearly he'll play with us in summer league and then he'll sign a D-League contract so he'll develop with the Texas Legends," said Nelson. "And we're really, really excited about helping develop his game."
Cuban is thrilled with the prospect of a seven-footer with good field goal acumen, declaring that "Manute Bol is back."
"He came in here and got on the practice court and he was 15 for 25 in one row, and he was better in other times," Cuban recalls. "He can shoot better than a lot of guys that I'm looking at right now. The guy's got skills. He hasn't played against top-level competition, so that's going to be the question mark."
Nelson sees the measurables with Singh, and hopes that the Mavericks are able to develop him into a solid, versatile big man.
"He's pretty skilled," said Nelson. "He's got good hands, good passer. He needs to work on mobility and just get in NBA shape. But he's a project that we're looking forward to working with."
Singh, the first ever 52nd overall pick in team history, is the first international player the Mavericks have drafted since Tanguy Ngombo in 2011 who was from the Congo. Singh is also the fifth seven-footer taken by the organization since 2000.
Dallas centers Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire are both free agents this off-season. If the Mavericks are unable to effective fill the void of their departures, the team would need Singh to develop quicker than expected.
