Mavs Ready for Roddy Beaubois to Start Next Season

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Many people blamed Rick Carlisle’s hesitancy to play rookie Rodrigue Beaubois in Game 6 of the Spurs series for the Mavs’ early termination from Playoff competition this season. According to team owner Mark Cuban, this will not be an issue next year.

Cubes expects Beaubois to improve over the summer, and to get plenty of minutes in 2011. Mark also sees the explosive guard eventually making the All-Star team.

From The Dallas Morning News:

“Oh yeah, I expect him to be an All-Star if he works hard. If he works hard and improves at all this summer, which will give us a great indication of if Roddy is who we think he is, somebody who is really willing to work at Dirk’s level to improve his game, if he does that this summer, and he improves his game like that, he definitely will be a starter. If he doesn’t, than we would be disappointed.”

“Remember, the first time he made his first SportsCenter highlight, it was for a behind-the-back pass from underneath the basket. It wasn’t for his scoring ability at all or shooting ability. Roddy really came in, and in the summer league he was the same way, he didn’t shoot enough. He over-passed. He was a pass-first point guard. And that worked against him, because that’s not what we needed from him. You’re not going to have a rookie as a pass-first point guard replace Jason Kidd. Jason had spent a lot of time with Roddy, and as Jason got more aggressive going to the basket, so did Roddy. Roddy really showed his explosiveness, and ability to finish around the basket and his ability to shoot obviously, and so I think he’s got the ability to be the best of both. A guy who can pass when he needs to be pass-first and someone else is hot, and a guy who can score when you need him to score. And that’s really what our hope is for him going forward.”

That’s a lot of pressure and expectations on a second-year player, but Beaubois has shown flashes of brilliance in the opportunities he received.

For his own sake, here’s to hoping Rick Carlisle is paying attention.