In the middle of the Dallas disarray, Dante Exum has an impressive return 

Not only has Dante Exum had to take over some heavy lifting from day one of his return, he had to do it amidst the turmoil surrounding the Dallas Mavericks after the Luka trade.

This is not Dante Exum’s first rodeo. Returning from injury has become all too familiar to the 6’5 Dallas Mavericks point guard from Australia, who has had to fight his way back from multiple injuries during his career, which ultimately resulted in him getting waived by the Houston Rockets in 2021 and ending up in Europe.

First, in Barcelona, then on Partizan in Belgrade, where he played so well that he got the attention of the Dallas Mavericks, who brought him to Dallas in 2023; smarter, tougher and mentally stronger.

The devastating injury to his wrist that kept him out until this month, happened at the worst of times, on the first day of training camp. It required surgery and since then he has worked hard on rehabbing, hoping to return after three months out.

But in an unfortunate turn of events, Exum’s first game back happened right on the eve of the Luka Doncic trade for Anthony Davis, and due to the turmoil surrounding it, his return has gone somewhat under the radar.

After a game off due to achilles tightness in the Dallas Mavericks clutch win against the Golden State Warriors Wednesday, Exum returned with a vengeance against the Miami Heat last night with 27 points, three rebounds, four assists – two steals and a block in only 24 minutes. With a Maverick-high, he once again showed what an important piece he is to this team.

Back to the wrist injury, which benched him for months. It takes a special kind of mental toughness to keep focus with everything that’s been going on around the Dallas Mavericks recently. Not only has Dante Exum managed to rehab successfully once again, a testament to his mental toughness, averaging 11.7 points, 3.7 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 7 games – he has managed to do it amidst the chaos surrounding the Dallas Mavericks organization and the loss of its franchise player.

But it’s worth highlighting that the team as a whole has been incredibly disciplined and focused all through this extremely tough period in time. They have kept their focus, been locked in, and done a great job of not letting the noise of a situation they have no control of, get to them.

Reality is, the Mavericks really need Dante Exum’s playmaking at this point. With so many players injured, and the Mavs losing their strongest playmaker in Luka Doncic, Dante Exum has an important assignment ahead of him. Nobody’s asking him to be Luka, but the Mavs will need him to play important minutes next to Kyrie Irving and take the reigns with Spencer Dinwiddie when Kyrie Irving misses games.

In the big win over the Boston Celtics last week, Exum showed how he is very capable of producing for this team, and he had one of his best games in a long time with 15 points along with his five assists, and going 4/6 from three.

Something he brings to the table, which is extremely important in basketball and rare outside of the veterans on this team, is his calm demeanor, even in clutch, and his ability to make the right reads under pressure. A recent example is when he calmly made his two freethrows with the game on the line, something that is much harder than it looks under pressure, securing the Mavs an important win against the Houston Rockets.

The duality of Exum is intriguing, however. As calm as he is, he always wants to push the ball, looking for transition plays. Here, he gets the steal and sets Klay Thompson up for an easy layup with a quick half court pass.

And here, he is the connector and makes the right read with a quick bullet pass to a cutting Daniel Gafford, showing off his vision and IQ.

Something that’s of note in last night’s game against the Heat is the fact that he took on the role of scorer to a much bigger degree than normal. With 27 points, he showed off some moves we have rarely seen from him before, like this fadeaway jumper after a cut:

The hardest part of this whole thing is thinking about what could have been. Like the fact that Exum didn’t get to play one minute with Luka Doncic this season, a duo that has been efficient and exciting to watch together.

A healthy Dante Exum next to a healthy Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving would have made one hell of a backcourt – if the frontcourt was healthy too – no doubt capable of contending for a title once again.

But things changed – as they are wont to do when there are misalignments – and none of that happened, leaving Dallas with a host of injuries and questionable playoff chances. What could have been is a dangerous avenue to explore and it can be a haunting mirror to what is actually taking place.

Still, the mental toughness of Dante Exum – and this team – still shines through on the court. In this quote from last season about fighting his way back from injury, he offers some insights into dealing with setbacks. Something a lot of us, including a handful of his injured teammates, could probably use at this time:

“Unfortunately for me, every time I found a rhythm, I’d go back down. But it was about keeping headstrong.”

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