Mavs, Jameer Nelson Nearing Agreement

2:56pm: Nelson’s camp is fielding calls from other teams as they look to intervene before he commits to the Mavs, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The Bulls had been pursuing him before they came to terms with other point guards, Charania adds.

WEDNESDAY, 1:41pm: The Mavs are “on track” to strike a deal with Nelson for the room exception when he meets the team Thursday, barring an unforeseen snag, Stein reports (Twitter links).

TUESDAY, 8:36pm: Free agent point guard Jameer Nelson is scheduled for a face-to-face visit with the Mavericks on Thursday, sources tell ESPN’s Marc Stein, who adds that Dallas is still equipped with its $2.732MM room exception and hopes to ultimately complete a deal with the former All-Star. On the topic of their search for one more veteran point guard this summer, Stein also reminds that the Mavs met with Mo Williams at some point this month (All Twitter links).

As we recently passed along, Williams hasn’t been the team’s top priority with their room exception, and Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com even suggested that Nelson was possibly a higher target on their list. If the Mavs reach an agreement with Nelson, it would certainly factor into Williams’ interest in joining the team; the addition of Nelson to a current point guard rotation that includes Devin Harris, Raymond Felton, and Gal Mekel would create a logjam. Although Williams can productively contribute as an off-guard, it’s difficult to imagine him taking less money to join the Mavs when there are more lucrative offers reportedly on the table.

Nelson put up 12.1 PPG and 7.0 APG in 32.0 MPG over 68 games and 68 starts last season, although he didn’t shoot particularly well from the field overall (39.4%). Nonetheless, those numbers are mostly better than Harris’ (7.9/4.5/20.5/40/37.8) and Felton’s (9.7/5.6/31.0/65/39.5) last season. Nelson was also the superior three point shooter compared to the other two, hitting from deep on a 34.8% clip; Harris shot 30.7% while Felton connected on 31.8%.

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