LAS VEGAS – Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Dereck Lively II were put under some very unusual set of circumstances in
Saturday afternoon’s summer league opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For starters, because their draft-day trades with the Dallas Mavericks weren’t complete until last Thursday, Prosper and Lively weren’t able to practice with their new teammates for the first time until Friday. The very next day the two rookie first-round draft picks were facing Chet Holmgren and a cast of very talented Thunder players who eventually upended the Mavs, 91-80, in the NBA 2K24 Summer League at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Still, Mavs coach Jared Dudley was very pleased with what he saw from Proper and Lively.
“That was the least of my concerns — those two,” Dudley said following Sunday’s practice. “I thought they played well enough.
“Maybe if they weren’t on a minutes restriction it would have been different, because they would have played a lot more and I know they would have gotten better as time goes on.”
Proper played 17 minutes against OKC and finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shots. Lively played 16 minutes and collected four points and four rebounds, and was 1-of-2 from the field.
Both players, Dudley said, will have their minutes increased Monday when the Mavs face the Philadelphia 76ers at 7 p.m. CT at Cox Pavilion in a game that will be televised on ESPNU.
“I expect it to be in the 20-22 (minutes) range, and then after that, the 24-26 range,” Dudley said, referring to the increased minutes for Lively and Prosper against the Sixers. “So, I expect them to be more comfortable on defense.
“I expect Lively to get a couple more easier buckets, because of the onus of what we put on the offense of making the right reads and decision-making and looking at these bigs for the lobs, and not just shooting pull-ups. But getting downhill and looking for the lob and corner (three-pointers). And for Omax, he was elite defensively, he made the right reads, he didn’t shoot any bad shots, so I expect him to have more production because he’s going to have more minutes.”
Prosper welcomes the additional minutes, since it gives him additional time to expand his game.
“I didn’t feel tired the last game, so I feel good about increasing my minutes,” he said. “(Dudley) told us before this past game that every
game he’s going to ramp up our minutes.
“Because we only had one practice (before the OKC game), he wants to ramp us up gradually, but it’s good.”
Prosper added that no one should judge what he and Lively gave the Mavs against OKC just on the statistics.
“The first game out there, the first time being on an NBA court, it was a great feeling,” Prosper said. “Obviously it wasn’t the outcome we wanted as a team, but it was good to be out there and it’s good because you go game speed and I learned a lot my first game.
“After one practice I think Derek and I held our own and now it’s about building for tomorrow.”
Dudley already knows Prosper and Lively will make marked improvements against the Sixers.
“Only one practice is tough for them,” he said. “But the good thing about this is, it’s summer league. But I thought they played well.
“If you look at their minutes when they were in there, Omax was phenomenal, (and) Lively controlled it. (Lively) caught a nice little lob. One or two finishes. He’ll finish it the next game. It’s the first time them getting really the chemistry and feel.”
And that chemistry and feel should be on-point with each game they’re on the court.
“I thought they played well,” Dudley said. “Their minutes are going up here every single game now.”
Prosper gave kudos to the Thunder for being able to play more effective than the Mavs and for shooting 44.2 percent (19-of-43) from three-point territory.
“Most of those guys are sophomores in the league, and obviously they played with each other a long time, so it’s definitely an adva
ntage for them,” Prosper said. “But it’s no excuse for us.
“We just got to do it, get together quicker and learn to play with each other on a quicker pace, and we’re going to do that. Having one game under our belt helps us. We know what we need to improve for the next game and we’re going to do that.”
HARDY ADDED WEIGHT: Summer league coach Jared Dudley said the first things he noticed about second-year guard Jaden Hardy is that he’s added some weight from what he carried a year ago.
“He’s 10 pounds heavier,” Dudley said. “But it’s not like he’s eating cheeseburgers. He’s been lifting (weight) here.”
Dudley said Hardy (6-4, 198) has stayed in Dallas this entire offseason to work on his game and overall body.
“Most teams don’t have this,” Dudley said. “Their rookies get to go home here for a little bit, then they get to come back. He didn’t get to go home.”
Hardy, who scored a game-high 24 points against the Thunder on 8-of-18 shooting, said he has stopped eating fast food, and he wants to improve his strength, speed, defense and ball handling. Dudley, meanwhile, said he wants Hardy to have better selections on his field goal 
attempts.
“Does it need to improve, still, yes,” Dudley said. “Has it come a long way? One hundred percent.
“I’m trying to teach him to be a point guard. What we’re trying to build up now with him is in the pick-and-roll.”
BRIEFLY: Forward Braxton Key is hoping to pick up where he left off against Oklahoma City. Key finished Saturday’s game with eight points, a team-high eight rebounds, a game-high tying three steals and two assists in 22 minutes. “I thought we made a couple of mistakes, but we figured out what worked the other day (against the Thunder),” Key said. “I feel like we got our jitters out the way, and offensively I think we got a little bit better. We come here to hoop, and at the end of the day we’re all trying to get a job. Once you get out on the court, we’re out there to play basketball.”. .The Mavs played their summer league opener this past Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who played three summer league games last week in Salt Lake City before playing Dallas. On Monday, the Mavs will battle the Philadelphia 76ers, who also played three summer league games in Salt Lake City last week. The Sixers edged the Thunder on Thursday, 80-79. “I watched (the Sixers) in Utah,” Mavs summer league coach Jared Dudley said. (Sixers coach) Nick Nurse will do everything. He’ll junk it up. He’ll play zone. I’m expecting him to play a little bit of zone. They’ve got good guards — good guards that can score. One thing about them and OKC, they’ve got a nice advantage because they got to go to Utah, so their coaches got to find out who plays well. So for us it’s just off-setting chemistry and just playing harder and smarter.”. .The Sixers won their Las Vegas’ summer league debut, 110-101, on Friday against the New York Knicks. The Sixers had seven players score at least 11 points, led by 23 points from Jaden Springer.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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