The Dallas Mavericks have gone through two practice days in preparation for the NBA 2K24 Summer League in Las
Vegas. But their two recent first-round draft picks haven’t yet participated.
Why not?
It’s because last month’s two draft-day trades which brought Duke center Dereck Lively II and Marquette forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper to the Mavs have not been finalized. So Lively and Prosper have been limited to one-on-zero drills and cardio.
The NBA moratorium on those trades involving Lively and Prosper ends Thursday.
Lively and Prosper will both practice with the Mavs on Friday and play in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. CT summer league opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Thomas & Mack Center.
“We’ll have one practice in Vegas on Friday, then they’ll play,” Mavs summer league coach Jared Dudley said. “They’ll get thrown to the fire fast.
“But listen, it’s summer league and it’s what you want.”
The Mavs had the 10th pick of the June 22 NBA Draft and chose Kentucky guard Cason Wallace of Richardson. OKC used the 12th pick to draft Lively, and then traded his draft rights to the Mavs for the draft rights to Wallace.
The Sacramento Kings drafted Prosper with the 24th overall pick of the first round, then traded his draft rights to the Mavs.
Dudley said he’ll watch film with Lively pretty soon.
“I’ll have him just getting him ready because overall you can just see his learning ability,” Dudley said. “He’s an extreme elite athlete.
“The best thing for him is defensively, to be able to protect that paint, be able to switch and do all that. There will be more mental days for them than physical, then they’ll have their five games (in Vegas).”
Guard McKinley Wright IV said of Lively and Prosper: “They’re going to be huge. The length that they bring, that presentation, I think is going to not scare a lot of guys, but make them think twice.”
Wright likes the way Lively plays around the rim, and his ability to post and play screen-and-roll. He also is fond of Prosper’s game on the perimeter, his ability to handle the ball, shoot it and defend four positions.
“Dereck asked me and (guard) Jaden (Hardy) today how do we want the screens to be set to get us open,” Wright said. “I said, ‘As long as you can just make the defender trail, I can get you the ball.’ He was like, ‘Naw, I don’t care about me.’
“He wanted to get me and Jaden open. Just being able to hear that from a big coming in his first year, it’s big, man. I’m looking forward to getting on the floor with those guys.”
LOTS OF CHARGES: After the Mavs let the media inside to watch the latter half of Wednesday’s summer league practice session, several
players were observed taking a large amount of charges.
Guard McKinley Wright IV said he’s never seen so many charges during a summer league practice.
“I don’t know what it was about,” Wright said. “Coach (Jared) Dudley told us he didn’t really want us to take charges unless you go back to the college film and see that’s what you do.
“It’s good to see, though. You got guys out there putting their bodies on the line. That shows that we can trust them on the back side if we get beat up top, so it’s good to see. I know it was against each other, but building habits like that for summer league, playing against these other teams is going to be huge.”
BRIEFLY: As 24-year old McKinley Wright IV patiently waits on his chance to make a splash on an NBA stage, he said his family in general and his daughter in particular are what keeps him grounded. “I have a four-year old,” Wright said. “That’s my life right there. She means everything to me — just coming home and knowing I’ve got her support. She wants to be a basketball player now. She sees her dad running up and down, so that’s what wakes me up every day. Waking up every morning, the days you think you don’t have it, it’s bigger than me now. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about her, and I’m making sure I’m building up my resume to be able to help support her when she gets older and gets to college. I’m just trying to be the best father figure I can be to her. My family already know what I can do, and they’ve seen it for 24 years now. So, it’s time for her.”. . . TCU coach Jamie Dixon was a guest at Wednesday’s practice. Mavs rookie guard Mike Miles 
Jr. played for Dixon at TCU the past three seasons. . .Tom Crean, who coached Georgia from 2018-22, also was a guest at Wednesday’s practice. Crean’s son, Riley, is the video coordinator for the Mavs. . .In describing second-year guard Jaden Hardy, summer league coach Jared Dudley said: “He’s a funny kid. If you look at him, he looks like a rapper in a way. He has a nice swagger about him. He’s got that laugh that if he’s on the opposite floor and you hear him laugh, you know it was Hardy. For me, he’s a pure sense of innocence. He just wants to play basketball, video games and probably hang with his boys.” After his senior year in high school, two seasons ago Hardy played for the NBA G League Ignite. Then, as a rookie for the Mavs last season he averaged 8.8 points in just 14.8 minutes. “Anyone knows when you go one-and-done, you grow up real fast,” Dudley said. “You become the bread winner of your family, and it’s a lot of responsibility on him. Here, right now, the whole summer league, you can tell our two first-round picks, the summer league is about Jaden Hardy. That’s one thing for sure.” After Wednesday’s practice, the team surrounded Hardy and sang Happy Birthday to him. Hardy turned 21 on Wednesday.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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