When the Dallas Mavericks signed O.J. Mayo to a free agent deal this summer, both parties figured it would provide a fresh start for Mayo, and some needed scoring and star power for the Mavericks.
Things have not gone according to plan. Mayo started the season off strong averaging 16.4 points a game on 46.2 percent shooting and 41.6 percent from three.
Those numbers were career best for Mayo, and they were also done while Dirk Nowitizki was out with an injury. Fast forward almost six months, and Mayo is slumping to the finish line of this season being inconsistent in every way imaginable.
Monday night Mayo just had a god awful night against his former team the Grizzlies, and Dallas head coach let Mayo have, blasting his constant inconsistency night in and night out according to NBA.com.
“I don’t know. You should probably ask him. I’m not sure,” Carlisle said when asked why Mayo delivered such a disappointing effort. “He wasn’t into it in the first half. We showed him some film at halftime where he was virtually just standing around defensively and said, ‘Hey, we need you’; just tried to get him going a little bit. He just had a bad night. I guess I’ll write it off to that. But I tell you what, if I was playing against my former team, I’d come out ready to go. I’d come out ready to go at them. But that’s me, you know, that’s me.”
Carlisle was asked about Mayo’s overall output for the entire season, and his sarcasm couldn’t be hid.
“Well, the good news is there’s only an opportunity for one more [poor outing],” Carlisle said. “I just want to see him show up. I just want to see him show up and compete. He didn’t compete tonight. And I tell you, with all the time we’ve put into helping him develop and bringing him along, in the biggest game of the year – an opportunity to be a winning team – for him to show up like he did tonight, I was shocked. Look, sometimes guys have bad nights, so make sure to put that in there, too.”
Mayo has a player option next year for $4.2 million and it will be interesting to see if he returns to Dallas, or if he tries his luck in a different city for the same salary or probably less.