Free agent Dirk Nowitzki, as expected, has reached an agreement with the Dallas Mavericks.
The pact is reportedly worth $40 million over the next two seasons for the 38-year-old legend.
Nowitzki, remember, signed his last contract at an ultra-steep discount of $25 million over three years before opting out after Year 2
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2016
Dirk's 2-year, $40M deal reported by @ESPNSteinLine is still a hometown discount. He could have had the $31M max.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) July 5, 2016
The second year of the deal is expected to be a player option.
Per ESPN:
Before coming to terms with Nowitzki, Dallas rallied from two early disappointments in free agency and used its substantial salary-cap space to make some promising pickups. After being spurned by Hassan Whiteside and Mike Conley in the early stages of free agency, Dallas capitalized on the sudden availability of Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut in Golden State — in the wake of the Warriors’ success in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes — to agree on a four-year, $94.4 million max deal to sign Barnes as well as a trade to acquire Bogut.
The second year of Nowitzki’s new deal is likely to be a player option, sources said, which would allow the NBA’s sixth all-time leading scorer to decide whether he wants to keep playing. Nowitzki, who turned 38 on June 19, has said numerous times since Dallas’ season ended with a first-round exit to Oklahoma City that his ideal scenario is playing two more seasons, but he’s also made it clear he wants to re-evaluate things at the end of the 2016-17 season.
Since it emerged in May that Nowitzki would likely decline his $8.7 million player option for next season and return to free agency for the first time since the summer of 2014, it has been widely expected — both in Dallas and leaguewide — that the 7-footer from Germany refused to even consider leaving the Mavericks, who acquired him on draft night in 1998 and have made him the focal point of their franchise ever since.
Keep up with the latest signings during the July free-agency period by following our 2016 NBA Free Agent Tracker.
