10 Biggest early-season surprises for the Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks have jumped out to a shocking 6-1 start, but that's not to say they haven't encountered their fair share of surprises in this young NBA season already.

Dallas might as well trademark themselves as a second-half team, as many of their recent outings haven't seen them take control of the game until late into the contest.

For as dry as Dallas has looked in the first halves this year, they've looked extremely efficient in all facets in most of their second halves this year. The trend of Dallas' surprising emergence as a second-half team goes in tandem well with the surprising nature of the start of the season for Dallas.

10 Biggest early-season surprises for the Dallas Mavericks

Many players have taken unexpected roles or aren't playing enough compared to fan expectations, but needless to say, it has been an extremely exciting start to the season for Dallas and their fans.

We could be looking back at this list by the end of the season scoffing at its inaccuracy compared to what Dallas looked like as a finished product this year, but it is worthwhile to catch up on the biggest surprises through seven games this year for the Mavericks.

Nonetheless, here are 10 early-season surprises for the Dallas Mavericks.

10. Richaun Holmes and Olivier-Maxence Prosper are completely out of rotation

When the Dallas Mavericks traded for Richaun Holmes and Olivier-Maxence Prosper on draft night this past summer, there was a lot of skepticism that either of them would even become part of the Mavericks rotation.

However, that narrative changed pretty quickly over the summer. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban called Holmes one of the "most underrated" pickups in free agency during a podcast appearance. Furthermore, Prosper blossomed at NBA Summer League and quickly became a fan favorite as reports surfaced that he was well ahead of schedule in his development leading up to the Mavericks' training camp.

While there was still definitely a point to prove in the preseason for both players, Holmes was very excited to get a fresh start in Dallas and Prosper seemed like he would at least be part of the Mavericks' rotation at the very least. However, both players drastically underperformed comparable to expectations during Dallas' preseason.

Holmes looked out of sorts offensively and was missing routine shots around the rim in the pick and roll throughout most of Dallas' preseason, and he wasn't enough of a deterrent defensively to warrant regular season minutes either.

Prosper just looked well behind the curve from an offensive standpoint, but he still can certainly become an effective player for Dallas in the future if he takes his development seriously and gains more confidence from a shot-creation perspective.

We are only seven games into the season, so we can't write off either Prosper or Holmes becoming part of Dallas' rotation at some point in the season, but it's definitely surprising that neither of them has even cracked the rotation given the notion of both of them heading into preseason.