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The Dallas Mavericks have one less free agency decision to make later this summer. Forward Nicolò Melli is leaving the NBA and retuning to Italy. He is finalizing a deal to play for Olimpia Milano, Sportando reports. Melli, 30, joined the Mavericks in March along with JJ Redick as part of a multi-player trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. In retur...

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A native of Italy, Nicolo Melli has a unique background compared to his New Orleans teammates, as the only current Pelicans player born outside of North America (Nickeil Alexander-Walker was born in Canada). Melli is also the only member of the roster who did not play Division I college basketball, instead turning pro in his teens and spending a do...

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The windows that NBA players operate in are as thin as the space between two fence posts. For the most part, completely clean looks exist only in theory. Defenders who make mistakes are still long and quick enough to make up much of the ground they might have ceded. Nicolo Melli struggled with this at first, but after a rocky start to his NBA caree...

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Nicolo Melli already had his flight booked to the Bahamas when he found out he needed to tweak those plans. As the Pelicans wrapped up their final shootaround before the All-Star break Thursday, executive vice president David Griffin informed the Italian forward he’d been chosen as an injury replacement in the Rising Stars Game. At first, Melli tho...

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