When the Dallas Mavericks take the court this preseason, there is a strong possibility rookies Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper will be in the starting lineup.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said over the weekend the team will experiment with its lineups throughout the preseason. The group projects to have a couple of spots open in the starting lineup, which could go to the rookies.
They will open training camp on Wednesday, which is a bit earlier than other teams thanks to them playing three games overseas. The Mavericks will face Minnesota twice in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 5 and Oct. 7 before seeing Real Madrid in Spain on Oct. 10.
Kidd, speaking with Marc Stein on 97.1 The Freak in Dallas, explained the plan to start Lively and Prosper next to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Grant Williams.
These last couple of weeks, our rookies have taken jumps as I’ve talked to the coaching staff and (team president) Nico (Harrison) about starting Lively with Luka, Kai and Grant. We’ll see how that goes but I can say that we’ll probably start both rookies here early in camp probably in one or if not both games in Abu Dhabi just to see how they handle the situation.
The two first-round picks each had strong debuts with the Mavericks in the NBA Summer League. Lively averaged 8.4 points and eight rebounds in five games. Prosper posted averages of 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists.
Lively and Prosper have been among the players getting in work at the practice facility of late ahead of the start of training camp. They have hit their training hard and earned praise from Kidd.
They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do. Each week they get better so we’re excited. I look for those rookies to play a lot this season. They’re going to be a part of our fabric. There could be a chance of one of them starting so we’ll see.
Preseason in the NBA is often a period of time when teams will experiment with different lineups and rotations ahead of the season. The Mavericks will be no different this year and it could result in two first-year players starting early on.
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