Jared Cunningham sent to the D-League

Jared Cunningham, the Mavs first-round pick out of Oregon State, hasn't exactly gotten off to a fast start to his NBA career.

The rookie shooting guard has played in only 7 of Dallas' first 21 games, receiving a grand total of 24 minutes, almost all of them in garbage time.

As a result, Dallas sent him down to the NBDL on Tuesday in order to get him some playing time.

A 6'4, 190 combo guard who left Oregon State after his junior season, Cunningham was a bit of a reach with the No. 24 overall selection. I had him rated as a second-round pick, the No. 10 shooting guard in this year's draft.

He has excellent athleticism, but he doesn't have the distributing skills of a PG or the outside shot of a shooting guard. He's a slasher who can get to the rim and play excellent on-ball defense, but he doesn't project as a front-line starter at the NBA level.

However, there is a lot of room for growth in his game, as he can work on his outside shot and passing skills in the D-League without any fear of Rick Carlisle's often arbitrary rotations for young players.

As a junior, Cunningham was a first-team All Pac-12 player, averaging 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists on 45/34/78 shooting.