Yogi Ferrell Fucked Around And Earned Himself A Two-Year Contract

Yogi Ferrell, formerly a righteous Hoosier, is now a righteous Dallas Maverick.

In his first run as an NBA starter, Ferrell, fresh off a 32-point game, earned himself a brand new two-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks after leading Rick Carlisle’s to a 4-0 slate as the team’s new point guard. Yahoo Sports first reported the deal this morning, less than 24 hours after Ferrell lit up the Portland Trailblazers to the tune of nine three-pointers.

Ferrell was a fixture among college basketball’s elite guards for three years at Indiana, averaging at least 16.3 points per game from 2014 to 2016, though his name is in the Hoosier record books as the program’s current all-time leader in assists. As one of Indiana’s deep threats, he took about five treys a game in his senior year, hitting on 42 percent of his tries. He could also levitate on occasion.

Still, as a 6-foot-nothing guard, Ferrell didn’t garner enough NBA interest to have his name called during the 2016 NBA draft; instead, he signed with the Brooklyn Nets as an undrafted free agent and played with their summer team. He had no problem putting up points, but his three ball seemed broken, as he shot under 20 percent from behind the arc. Ferrell began the season with the Brooklyn Nets, lasting 14 games on the roster and playing in just nine, averaging 5.3 points per contest. The Greenfield, In., native didn’t get much run with the Nets, playing more than 20 minutes just twice and taking over 10 shots twice.

After suffering a right ankle sprain in early December, Ferrell was (again) assigned to Brooklyn’s D-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, on Dec. 11; he spent the next month a half getting healthy and lurking around the D-League before he penned a 10-day contract with the Mavericks on Jan. 27 and lost his mind.

In four games with Dallas, Ferrell is shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 52.3 percent from long range, good for 17.8 points a night to go along with 5.0 assists. (Ferrell was able to step into the starting role right away because Deron Williams and J.J. Barea are sidelined with injuries.) His undefeated run atop the Mavericks offense includes impressive wins against the Spurs, Cavaliers, and Raptors (and one against the 76ers), in which one could successfully argue that he outplayed both Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard.

Friday night’s 109-104 victory over Portland marked the high-point of his run, with the 23-year old scoring a game-high 32 points and draining 9-of-11 three-pointers—his nine treys tied a franchise rookie record.

Hell yeah, Yogi back.