Eric Griffin agrees to deal with Dallas Mavericks

After a stellar summer league showing, forward Eric Griffin has agreed to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks, according to Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas and Shams Charania of RealGM.

While there has been some disagreement on the length of the deal, it does seem to be clear that it is an non-guaranteed deal. Basically, Griffin will be going to camp with the Mavericks and hoping to make his mark.

Griffin is basically a position-less athlete at this point in time. His body has the look of a 3, but his game is more in the uber-athletic 4 mold. A good comparison would be a slightly more developed Jerami Grant or a slightly less developed (although much larger) K.J. McDaniels. Someone with this amount of tremendous athleticism always has a shot, and Griffin really does get after it on the defensive end with his near 7’1 wingspan.

After graduating from Campbell University in 2012, Griffin went undrafted. He played in an uneventful three games with the Lakers Summer League team, before heading overseas to Italy. While there, Griffin impressed, averaging 17.5 points per game, seven rebounds, and three blocks+steals. He came back over and participating in summer league with the Miami Heat last season, and even went to training camp with them before being cut. Griffin traveled to Venezuela and Puerto Rico this year before returning back to American soil for a third LVSL go-around.

As the Mavericks seem likely to lose Shawn Marion this offseason, Griffin could present an interesting option as a defensive stopper on the wing. He clearly needs to work on his offensive game, but if he can start knocking down threes at a respectable rate (he’s taken 13 of them during the five summer league games this year, so he clearly thinks he has it in his arsenal despite his shot being rather flat) he has a real chance to make the Mavericks.

If he’s unable to make the Mavs, well, at least we’ll always have this memory of him posterizing Shane Larkin: