Camping Day 1: Klay Thompson “impressed” by Naji Marshall

Knife season is here!

With training camp now officially underway, it’s time for everyone’s favorite pastime: reading practice reports! The Mavericks have made their way out to Las Vegas for their series of practices on campus at UNLV over the course of the week. Practices are closed to the media, but they do get access to the players and coaches after practice is over.

After his first practice as a Dallas Maverick, Klay Thompson was asked by Dallas Morning News reporter Mike Curtis if anyone stood out from day 1.

While his nickname is “The Knife”, Marshall does more than just the dirty work. Mavericks fans have been excited about the defensive ability and 3 point shooting of Naji, while his overall floor game often gets forgotten about. PandaHank posted a video earlier this summer about Marshall’s floor game and passing.

The fact that Naji’s game is already impressing the team should get Mavs fans excited about what he can contribute early on in this new year. Even though he’ll be coming off the bench, expect a big impact from Marshall this year.

Other camp notables

• Per Jason Kidd, everyone was a full go at practice today except for Maxi Kleber and Kessler Edwards. Notably, that means Kyrie Irving is indeed fully recovered from the broken hand he suffered this offseason.
• Marc Stein noted that former Suns and Lakers head coach Frank Vogel was in attendance to start the day. Notably, Vogel also attended camp at the start of the 2022 season, after he was let go from the Lakers. Jason Kidd was on Vogel’s staff in LA whenever they won the Title in 2020.
• Tyson Chandler is still around the team in an advisory role, as he was at practice working with Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford and the other bigs.

We’ll have more on training camp, as well as our continuing season preview coverage, right here at Mavs Moneyball.