J.J. Barea, Mavericks Reportedly Agree to 1-Year, $2.6M Contract

Veteran guard J.J. Barea agreed to a guaranteed one-year, $2.6 million contract to return to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

The 36-year-old Barea is set to enter his 15th NBA season. It will mark his 12th season with the Mavs, including each of the past seven campaigns.

Last season, Barea appeared in 29 games and made six starts, averaging 7.7 points, 3.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per contest while shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from beyond the arc.

Barea originally signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent out of Northeastern in 2006 and went on to spend the first five years of his career with the Mavericks. He then signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves and spent three years in that organization before returning to Dallas in 2014.

Barea is one of the most beloved role players in Mavericks history. He has started only 93 of the 637 regular-season games and just 11 of 50 playoff games he has played in for the team, but he helped guide the Mavs to an NBA championship in 2011.

For his career, Barea owns averages of 8.9 points, 3.9 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game. He fell a bit short of his usual marks last season, but that is largely due to the fact that he played his fewest minutes per game since his second season in 2007-08.

Even so, Barea was quite productive when he did play with averages of 17.8 points, 9.0 assists and 4.2 rebounds per 36 minutes.

He is a spark plug capable of producing numbers even with only a handful of minutes, which is key as a guard in Dallas since all others play second fiddle to future MVP candidate Luka Doncic.

Barea is an ideal backup to Doncic given his experience, leadership and unselfishness, and those factors likely played a significant role in the Mavs bringing him back for another season.