Startling shift: a once-stalled Mavericks offense suddenly surging thanks to an unexpected catalyst. Dallas has carved out four wins in its last five games, with only a loss to Oklahoma City mired in the mix, and those victories include standout road performances against the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets.
The turning point? Ryan Nembhard has assumed the starting point guard role just six games ago, and he’s unlocked a level of cohesion that eluded Dallas for much of the season. The team cracked the 110-point threshold in every one of his six starts, a marked improvement from the nine times in 19 games prior. In his first start in Denver, Nembhard exploded for 28 points on 12-of-14 shooting and collected 10 assists, followed by a 15-point, 13-assist performance two nights later against the Miami Heat.
Nembhard is listed at 5-foot-11 without shoes, a fact that contributed to him going undrafted out of Gonzaga due to concerns about size and shooting. He is five inches shorter than his brother, Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, and his game has inevitably required a different approach. Yet the parallels with other underappreciated Gonzaga guards—exceptional instincts and basketball IQ that offset modest physical tools—are hard to ignore.
A key asset has been his ability to avoid exposing mismatches. While height remains a sometimes inescapable hurdle, his high basketball IQ helps him navigate and limit trouble on defense. Offensively, Nembhard has exceeded expectations. He routinely finishes with one-handed, on-the-mly layups that slip past shot-blockers and has begun to quiet questions about his shooting by hitting 15 of 28 from beyond the arc. The long-range shot remains an area to watch given his college resume—34.7% career three-point shooting at Creighton and Gonzaga, with a relatively light 94 attempted threes in his senior year—and his profile as a primarily playmaker in college.
Perhaps even more impressive are his passing instincts, which haven’t faded. Anthony Davis has especially benefited from the fresh flow created by Nembhard’s distribution. The bigger strategic payoff for Dallas, though, is that defenses can no longer cheat off him as a scoring threat. Through a small but telling sample of games and minutes, Nembhard has posted a true shooting percentage around 65.8% with non-trivial usage, a figure that signals efficiency that can lift the entire offense.
If this level of performance endures, the ripple effects for the Mavericks could be substantial. A real point guard change allows Dallas to push tempo and play faster, contrasting with the sluggishness that accompanied earlier lineups. With Davis stepping into his true center role amid injuries, the lineup begins to feel coherent: Cooper Flagg is more comfortable playing off the ball, P.J. Washington slides naturally into the four, Brandon Williams can come off the bench to score, and the option value of D’Angelo Russell decreases.
Yet a degree of caution remains warranted. Dallas sits at 9-16, and the league’s 30th-ranked offense implies there’s still a long way to go before declaring a genuine turnaround. Still, landing a productive, undrafted guard like Nembhard represents a remarkable piece of talent acquisition by Nico Harrison’s staff and could shape decisions ahead of a potentially active trade deadline.”
