Iowa basketball: Devyn Marble gets second shot at the NBA

After three seasons overseas, former Iowa basketball player Devyn Marble is getting his second shot in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors.

Since graduating from the University of Iowa and playing four seasons for the Iowa basketball team, Devyn Marble was scooped up in 2014 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic where he spent the better part of two seasons.

In his time with the Magic, Marble played in 44 games, starting 7 of those but struggled to find his shooting stroke. He shot just 30.5% from the field and 22% from behind the arc.

After his second season, Marble was traded and subsequently released, effectively ending his brief time in the NBA.

Since then, he’s been playing for Aquila Basket Trento in the Italian Premier League where he’s had slightly more success. Last year, the former Iowa basketball player averaged 27.6 minutes per game. In this time, he shot 39% from the field, averaging 13.2 points per game while adding in 2.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.1 steals per game.

That performance was enough to convince the Golden State Warriors to offer an Exhibit 10 contract to Marble.

An Exhibit 10 contract is basically a non-guaranteed 1-year deal with an NBA team has bonuses attached to it if the player sticks on the game or the team’s affiliated G-League team. More importantly, if Marble does well, this contract can be converted into a two-way contract, which would give Marble a bit more stability.

For Marble, this is a second chance at the NBA, and joining the Warriors makes a lot of sense. With money wrapped up in four major contracts between Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and D’Angelo Russell, the Warriors (like the Lakers), need to do some bargain bin shopping to find points and minutes off the bench.

As it stands today, the Warriors have 9 guards on the roster (including Marble), but Thompson is out for the foreseeable future recovering from a torn ACL. Curry and Russell are guaranteed roster spots, but the others will in competition with Marble.

Jacob Evans: Evan is a 2018 first-round pick who struggled in his rookie season, shooting just 34% from the field in 30 games of action.

Alec Burks: Burks is an 8-year veteran with 429 games under his belt.

Jordan Poole: Poole is the Warriors 2019 first-round draft pick.

Ky Bowman: Bowman went undrafted in the most recent NBA draft, and just recently signed a two-way contract with the Warriors after playing for the Warriors summer league team.

Damion Lee: Lee has spent the past few seasons bouncing up and down from G-League to the NBA and back before sticking with Golden State last season. He is back on a recently announced two-way contract.

Last season the Warriors carried seven guards, which means there are 4-5 spots up for grabs depending on how quickly Thompson can return. Evans, Burks, and Poole should be shoo-ins barring a terrible camp which leaves former Iowa basketball player Devyn Marble battling Bowman and Lee for a roster spot.

At 6’6” and 200 pounds, Marble has great size and has shown he can be a solid defender, but his shooting will need to get back to what it was with the Iowa basketball team if he wants his second shot at the NBA to be successful.