The ninth overall pick solidifies his future in Dallas, bringing a relentless motor and defensive grit to a crowded frontcourt eager to transition from last year’s struggles.
DALLAS - To many of us, it's a mere formality.
But for Morez Johnson Jr.? It's surely seen as the payoff of a life-long dream.
This week, Morez officially signed his four-year rookie scale contract. It's worth $30.745 million and features $13.848 million guaranteed.
The first-round pick of the Dallas Mavs' average annual salary comes is at $7.686 million.
The next payoff for the Michigan big man? It comes on the floor.
"We were thrilled that Morez was there when we were choosing 9, and we think he fits perfectly with what we're trying to do," general manager Mike Schmitz said. "It's not always about position. A lot of it is about mentality and what are you bringing from an intangible standpoint. What are you bringing from a competitiveness standpoint?
"He's a home run in all those areas."
What's next? Dallas needs to hit more home runs.
For instance ...
The Mavs' guard depth is a concern. Kyrie Irving, 34, is returning from a lost season while rehabbing a torn ACL. Klay Thompson is 36 and coming off one of his worst seasons ever, statistically. Ryan Nembhard and Brandon Williams have shown upside, but their defense and consistency are problematic.
Dallas did sneakily acquire Spanish guard Sergio De Larrea, a 6-6 smooth operator who can playmake and has years of top Euro experience, but there's no guarantee he makes the roster - let alone carves out a spot in the rotation any sooner than the other players who have a head start.
And when it comes to the frontcourt, Johnson's addition creates a logjam.
The Mavs, in one form, have been in this position before. The generational talent Cooper Flagg, at 6-9, was joining big men Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford at this time last year, which caused fans to scratch their heads at how the team would get them all efficient minutes. Naji Marshall and Caleb Martin sometimes saw themselves playing down low, too, adding to the schematic headache.
A more realistic future, however, is the Mavs moving on from at least one of their bigs.
Gafford and Thompson have been featured in trade talks for a good chunk of the offseason. Washington has been mentioned, as well, in scenarios where the Mavericks go big game hunting. The veteran big man Gafford, as one of the more productive No. 2 centers in the league, has a competitive market, and his restructured contract with Dallas makes a trade more cap-friendly than otherwise, with the Mavs having a future-forward strategy.
For now, a versatile forward is signed, sealed and coming to Big D as the first major addition - outside of his former college coach - under the Masai Ujiri regime.
"You gotta be ready for everything with the NBA Draft," Schmitz said. "We feel this went according to plan, and we were able to execute the plan and vision we had in place. Morez is obviously a massive win for us, and just to add a player like that and a person like that is huge for the organization."
