Arizona basketball: Brandon Ashley to play for Dallas Mavericks in 2017 Orlando Summer League

Former Arizona Wildcats forward Brandon Ashley will play for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2017 Orlando Summer League, it was announced Wednesday.

Ashley, 22, was with the Mavericks in Orlando last July as well (then played with the Atlanta Hawks in Las Vegas Summer League), and the summer before that he earned a training camp invite with Dallas and appeared in seven preseason games before being waived by the team.

After his stint with the Mavs, Ashley spent part of the 2015-16 season in the NBA D-League where he averaged 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game with the Texas Legends.

In February of 2016, he signed with Germany’s Alba Berlin where he averaged 19.5 minutes per game and led the team in rebounds per game (5.7).

“It is a completely different game,” Ashley said of his time in Germany. “The game out there is a lot slower, a lot more focused on skill. Over here (in the United States), athleticism is a big part of it. It’s a different game, different style, and different pace and all of that.”

Ashley told me last year in Las Vegas that he was planning to re-join Alba Berlin for the 2016-17 season if he did not earn an NBA roster spot after 2016 NBA Summer League, but he does not appear on Alba Berlin’s 2016-17 stat sheet.

Ashley left Arizona after his junior season, and said he does not regret skipping his senior season, despite becoming the first UA player to leave school early and not get selected in the NBA Draft.

“I kind of feel like everybody develops differently at different times at different paces,” Ashley told me in Las Vegas. “But for me, personally, I think me going to the D-League and getting out of college was probably a good move for me for the simple fact that I feel like I’ve grown since I left school.

“That’s not a knock on [Arizona head] coach (Sean) Miller at all. He’s a fantastic coach, and he brought a lot of out me, but I just felt like I learned more being on my own and kind of having to do a lot more stuff for myself.”

In fact, Ashley said he likely would have left Arizona after his sophomore season had he not suffered a season-ending injury against Cal on Feb. 1, 2015.

“I do believe so,” he said. “It was definitely something I was considering at the time. I think I was in the mock drafts at that point, and so I definitely think it was something that could’ve worked out for me.”

Ashley and the Mavericks begin Orlando Summer League play on Saturday, July 1 against the New York Knicks. Ashley will likely join another team for Las Vegas Summer League when the Orlando circuit comes to a close on July 6.

Las Vegas Summer League begins on July 7.

In three seasons at Arizona, Ashley averaged 10.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in 95 games.

Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire