O-Max hoping to make Mavs’ rotation next season

LAS VEGAS – With much respect for the other Dallas Mavericks, this summer league is all about forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper. And for good reasons.

Since Prosper’s rookie season didn’t go the way he or the Mavs wanted it to go, the reset button has been pressed, and the hope for the Mavs is that Prosper will make some marked improvements this season, starting with the NBA 2K25 Summer League.

“O-Max, you have such a bigger role, but you want to keep it simple,” said Jared Dudley, who is the Mavs’ summer league coach. “Our job here and my job here is to show him improvement from year one to year two to hopefully make him a rotation player.

“So, by doing that, I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, O-Max, you can do whatever you want. But hey listen, you’re going to be guarding the best wings, so defend without fouling, because that’s what this team needs.”

Prosper noted that he is up for whatever challenges are thrown his way.

“Honestly, just getting out there to play, be out there with my teammates and learn (is a plus),” Prosper said, indicating that’s all that’s on his radar at this time. “(I want to) be in position where I’m in different situations and playing different positions.

“This is still a great opportunity for me to improve, and I’m looking forward to that.”

The Mavs will play their first summer league game Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Dallas time against the Utah Jazz at the Cox Pavilion on the campus of Nevada-Las Vegas. The game will be televised on NBA TV.

Prosper was acquired by the Mavs in a draft-day trade with the Sacramento Kings last summer. The Kings used the No. 24 overall pick to select Prosper, then traded his draft rights and Richaun Holmes to the Mavs for cash considerations.

As a rookie last season, Prosper averaged three points and two rebounds and shot 38.5 percent from the field in 40 games. It didn’t help that Prosper missed the entire 22 playoff games the Mavs played during their run to the NBA Finals.

Prosper, though, is hellbent on showing that he has a lot more to give than what he experienced during the 2023-24 season.

“All I look at is that it’s a learning experience,” Prosper said. “This is my first year. A lot of growth.

“Yeah, things could go one way or another, but I feel like everything happens for a reason. It happened, and now going into my second year I feel very confident about my game and who I am and I’m ready to make that jump.”

While last season was spiraling in a direction not to Prosper’s liking, he had several people in his corner who helped keep his spirits lifted.

“My family, my mom, my dad, my sister, the people who are close to me who know me and been with me through all my ups and downs,” he said, referring to his confidants. “They helped me because they gave me advice.

“They just stayed with me through it all. You got to have a close circle of people you really trust and you love.”

Prosper is even wearing a bracelet these days, with words of wisdom to remind him to keep calm when he’s on the court.

“It means everything to me,” he said. “If you know my story it’s not the conventional path to the NBA, but I always bet on myself first, and if you believe in yourself and your abilities, then nothing can stop you.

“It doesn’t matter who’s in front of you, who says what, what the outside world says. You put your head down, you put in the work, you trust your work and then you come out there and you do what you do. That’s been my motto what I live by – from the pre-draft (camp) to getting drafted to over the course of this year with the ups and downs. And then I’m just going to keep believing in that and bet on myself.”

Dudley hopes to make things simple for Prosper on the offensive end of the floor. And he knows if Prosper can work his way into the Mavs’ rotation, guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will be there to steer him in the right direction.

“If you’re open, catch-and-shoot, because of the three-pointers with Luka and Kyrie, and if not, re-drive,” Dudley said of his message to Prosper. “And the big thing about summer league and with O-Max, the re-drive is your decision-making.

“You can have a lob threat, which you have (Jamarion) Sharp here and have someone 7-4 who is athletic as can be. Or can you make the corner and wing pass when you drive and they pack the paint? And that’s something that O-Max has to be able to do at a consistent basis.”

Prosper admits that the more he has aligned himself with the NBA game, the more it has gotten kind of slow and enabled him to make the proper adjustments.

“It’s slowing down for me and I’m playing with more poise,” he said. “That’s what it is at the end of the day.

“You can look at it and it’s so fast, but you take a step back and you play at your pace, and that’s when you’ll be the most successful because you see things before they happen and you’re not trying to rush to everything. And I feel like that’s going to be a big difference maker for me going into year two compared to year one.”

And being a difference maker is exactly what the Mavs have in mind for Prosper this season.

“I just feel like from all the things I learned this year, I think it’s just learning how to play with my teammates — from Luka and Kai,” Prosper said. “And then learning how to guard with my team and making open shots and attacking the rim and doing all the things that I know I can do. I believe I’m right there, and I believe I will step into that rotation.”

BRING THE PHYSICALITY: Mavs summer league coach Jared Dudley wants his team to bring the physicality in the summer league.

“When we play Utah and they’re so talented a lot of first round picks — guys that played in the NBA last year – you’ve got to be physical to get them off their spots because they’re a talented team,” Dudley said after Friday’s practice.  “We’ll see what (the Mavs) can do tomorrow.”

Asked to compare the physical nature of the summer league to the regular season, Dudley said: “I would say the summer league is more physical than a regular NBA game, because these guys have nothing to lose. Even though they can get away with it, there’s 10 fouls to foul out instead of six (in the regular season and playoffs).

Dudley pointed out that former TCU standout forward Emanuel Miller has been by far our most physical person. For us, I’m trying to get AJ (Lawson) to be more physical and I’m trying to get  (Melvin) Ajinca to be physical, (and Alex) Fudge.”

All in all, Dudley wants the 15 players on the summer league roster to elevate their games and come together as one.

“Ajinca has been shooting the ball better than I thought he would – he has been running good,” Dudley said. “Miller off the bench has been so strong.

“Guys have been working their butt off for me and that’s all I can ask. They’re trying to learn the Dallas Mavericks’ defense in five days and I salute them for that.”

MAVS SIGN GORTMAN AND MILLER: The Mavs signed guard Jazian Gortman and forward Emanuel Miller each to a contract on Friday.

Gortman (6-2, 184) wasn’t chosen in the 2023 NBA Draft after playing for Overtime Elite. This past season he averaged 9.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 19 minutes while playing for the G League’s Wisconsin Herd and Rip City Remix.

The 6-6. 215-pound Miller, meanwhile, went undrafted in last month’s NBA Draft. But he averaged 11.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 29.0 minutes in 147 career games  — 137 starts – with Texas A&M (2019-21) and TCU (2021-24).

Gortman and Miller are both on the Mavs’ summer league roster.

X: @DwainPrice