Former Bluejay Anthony Tolliver is getting another opportunity to live out the NBA dream. Tolliver took part in a 2-day mini-camp with the Dallas Mavericks. 20 players were invited to take part on Thursday and Friday this past week. On day one Thursday there were only 10 of the 20 playerson display due to inclement weather with all 20 expected to take part on Friday.
A 6-9 center forward (I don’t know why they still consider him a center), Tolliver has played in parts of the last two seasons with the Iowa Energy in the NBA Developmental league. He joined Iowa this season after starting the 2008-09 campaign with the Spurs, and then went on to receive a Call-Up from the New Orleans Hornets with a 10-day contract. Tolliver then finished the season in Turkey with Galatasaray, one of Europe’s top teams. In the 2007-08 season, Tolliver just missed making the Cleveland Cavaliers opening day roster.
The mini-camp with the Mavericks is just the first step for Anthony to make it back on the roster of an NBA team. If he makes the cut here he will then participate in a summer camp with the Mavs and go on from there.
The other invitees to mini-camp were:
Player Pos. Ht. Wt. From
- Hassan Adams G 6-4 220 Arizona
- Blake Ahearn G 6-2 190 Missouri State
- Andre Brown F 6-9 245 DePaul
- Shan Foster G 6-6 200 Vanderbilt
- Sundiata Gaines G 6-1 195 Georgia
- Mickael Gelabale F 6-7 215 France
- Mike Green G 6-1 180 Butler
- Brandon Heath G 6-4 198 San Diego State
- Herbert Hill F 6-8 240 Providence
- Quinton Hosley F 6-6 215 Fresno State
- Trey Johnson G 6-5 215 Jackson State
- Mike Jones G 6-5 210 Maryland
- Jeff McInnis G 6-4 190 North Carolina
- Austin Nichols F 6-6 220 Humboldt State
- Richard Roby G 6-6 200 Colorado
- JaJuan Smith G 6-2 195 Tennessee
- Trent Strickland G 6-5 210 Wake Forest
- Yuta Tabuse G 5-9 165 BYU-Hawaii
- Chris Taft C 6-10 260 Pittsburgh
- Anthony Tolliver F 6-9 240 Creighton
Some other interesting things about the camp:
- 10 of the 20 players have some sort of NBA experience.
- This guy does a comparison of the D-League guys in camp against the non-NBA guys that were invited.
- friends.mavs.com has a video on Day 1 of the camp
- The Dallas Morning News alluded that they were going to keep people in the loop on the mini-camp, but nothing yet.
- No word so far on how Anthony did at camp as it is already over, but we wish him luck.
UPDATE: According to a blogger on the Mavs Social Network site, it sounds like there may not be a decision for a while on whether any of the attendees at this past week’s mini-camp will be selected or invited to summer camp:
While a lot of prospect came out of the camp, it was not set in stone that a selection would be made, instead noting that while there was a lot of energy flowing through the invited roster of players, but a second camp would more than likely be extended in the near future, perhaps as quickly as next week.
“it is hard to make a decision in a two day period but the guys came in and did a good job,” commented Coach Dwane Casey
So it is the wait and see game. The other bad part is that weather kept a lot of the 20 invited players from participating in both days of the mini-camp. No word on whether AT was one of those..