Mavericks' nonstop injuries provide golden opportunity for underrated fan favorite

Jared A’Latorre

Dallas Mavericks, Olivier-Maxence Prosper / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

The injury bug has somehow gotten worse for the Dallas Mavericks.

Maxi Kleber suffered a broken right foot against the Boston Celtics on Saturday and never returned after the injury was originally ruled an ankle injury, and Dallas truly can't catch a break.

If there's any good news for Mavs fans, it's that their superstar Luka Doncic could come back before the All-Star break, and that looks to be his goal. While the Mavericks organization still needs to maintain patience on the supporting cast healing up, this would be huge to just have both superstars back on the court.

With so many injuries that won't leave the team alone, this spells another golden opportunity for Olivier Maxence-Prosper.

Prosper's presence is now more crucial than ever with multiple injuries

With the news surrounding Kleber's broken right foot, this is a perfect chance for Prosper to build on one his best games of his career.

It came against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night when Prosper scored 14 points, three rebounds, and a steal against potentially the greatest team in the NBA. He didn't see too much action against Boston, only playing four minutes. Now, his upcoming minutes are going to be desperately needed.

Prosper has shown spurts that he can compete with his incredible athleticism. He's shown that his hustle deserves a second look from Jason Kidd. Prosper even predicted himself before the season started that this would be a year that he would show out despite a loaded roster. Even though he may not fill the stat sheet every night, his impact has been felt. With Kleber's injury, his presence will be extremely important.

It started in January against the New Orleans Pelicans when Prosper had one point with four rebounds and one assist. He didn't fill the numbers, but his versatility was felt. His strong resume against the Thunder has plenty of bite, he should not hesitate to put the ball on the floor and take his man inside, especially if it's a smaller man against him.

Prosper's future minutes will still be in question with Naji Marshall set to come back at any point from an illness, but that's an unknown timetable, considering with the injury bug has done to the Mavericks already this season.

Some of the greatest stories have started whenever guys got their chance from a teammate getting injured. For Kleber, this is obviously another frustrating time as he was playing in a strong stretch of games this season, but with Prosper getting his chance, the opportunity is right there for his time to shine.

Jared A’Latorre

Jared is the Site Expert of Sport DFW, and oversees Dallas sports all the time. He also spent time as a Senior Contributor to The Smoking Cuban, The Landry Hat and Gig Em' Gazette. His work has been featured on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports and MSN. He also covered various sports at Oklahoma State and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Media from Oklahoma State. He's done play-by-play radio broadcasting in North Central Oklahoma and currently does play-by-play radio broadcasting for high school football in North Texas. Jared is also a co-host for Grizzlies Digest, covering the Memphis Grizzlies. In his free time, Jared loves watching sports, spending time with family and friends and watching anything Billy Bob Thornton related.