Mavericks' beloved wing has perfect chance to shine - but failure spells bad news

The Dallas Mavericks have gotten off to a 5-3 start after a bounce-back win against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night, as the Mavericks hope to continue this momentum when they play the Phoenix Suns later tonight, especially since the Suns are winners of six straight games and won their first matchup against Dallas on October 26.

All things considered, Dallas' first eight games have been solid, as new additions such as Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson are finding their footing within Dallas' offense with each passing game. While the Mavericks are more talented on paper than they've shown in some of these contests, new players will take time to get fully acclimated and understand all of their teammates' tendencies, and it's not like any of Dallas' new additions have played badly to start the season by any means.

Injuries have also been a contributing factor toward Dallas not reaching the idealistic fluidity in their offense that fans hope for, as Maxi Kleber, Dereck Lively II, and P.J. Washington have all missed multiple games due to injury this season.

Prosper has potential to be in Mavs' rotation, but will need to prove more

While these injuries seem relatively minor, the Mavericks are suffering immensely at the four spot at the moment with both Kleber and Washington out of the lineup, which has created the perfect opportunity for young wing Olivier-Maxence Prosper to crack Dallas' rotation.

Prosper had his first real chance at meaningful minutes this season in Dallas' win against Chicago, as Prosper posted six points on 3-8 shooting from the field in 20 minutes. However, two of those buckets came in garbage time, and Prosper looked clunky on offense in the few minutes he played with Dallas' main rotation in that game.

After being selected as the No. 24 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Mavericks fans coveted Prosper for his fun-loving attitude and exhilarating defensive potential. Prosper's rookie season was fairly underwhelming though, as he only played in 40 games while averaging 3.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.

At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, Prosper has the frame and athleticism to become an elite wing defender in the NBA, and that has without a doubt been his best attribute since entering the league. That being said, Prosper's defense has been solid thus far, but far from an elite level like we've seen with P.J. Washington for instance.

On the other side of the ball, Prosper has worked tirelessly on his 3-point shot, though it hasn't particularly shown so far this season. Prosper is a combined 2-11 on 3-point attempts between preseason and limited regular season action this season, and even though we don't have a huge sample size on him this season, his attacks on closeouts and attempts at self-creation on offense don't look like they've improved far beyond the level they were at last season as well.

It's only year two for Prosper in Dallas, but the Mavericks are currently in a window to contend for an NBA championship, and they don't have time to over-extend minutes to Prosper for developmental reasons if he can't start to add more to his game offensively.

Prosper will likely get another shot at playing meaningful minutes in this upcoming contest against Phoenix with Washington still out, but he was already absent from the rotation when Kleber went down due to injury and Washington was still healthy, despite that being the perfect time for Jason Kidd to hand him minutes at the backup four.

Prosper has the makings to become a high-intensity wing defender and excellent slasher who can also stretch his game beyond the arc, but he has to prove it on the big stage sooner rather than later based on how loaded the Mavericks are, and his window of opportunity could easily come to a close whenever Washington returns from this minor injury.