Behind the megastars in this year’s free agency such as Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, lies a second tier of free agents teams will look to sign as back-up plans. Chief among them is free agent forward Luol Deng.
Deng is coming off an injury-plagued season that saw him split time between the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers, but is still expected to draw plenty of interest on the open market. The first team to show Deng interest, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports was Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks.
First call to free agent forward Luol Deng's reps tonight: Dallas Mavericks.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2014
While the Mavs are expected to target both Anthony and James, getting a jump on talking to Deng gives them a head-start should they be forced to look for a back-up plan.