After spending a few years away from the NBA, former top-five pick Dante Exum has earned a spot back in the rotation for the Dallas Mavericks.
The 28-year-old Australian-born guard has found a solid role for himself in Dallas. He showed how he is earning minutes with a solid hustle play against one of his former teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers. During the game, instead of going out of bounds for a turnover, Cleveland big man Jarrett Allen threw the ball off Exum.
But as he saw this happen, Exum laid out for the ball in an attempt to give Dallas control of the play. This reminded some fans of the legendary Dennis Rodman, who would regularly put his body on the line to keep a possession alive.
This hustle from Dante Exum 🤯pic.twitter.com/qnWK2v0iaj
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 28, 2023
The twitch, body control, effort and awareness from Exum was outstanding. But it was also nothing new if you have watched him play this season.
Exum has averaged 1.3 loose balls recovered per 36 minutes, via NBA.com, which is tied for the seventh-most among those who have logged at least as many minutes so far this season.
While was a tremendous display of athleticism on the play by Exum, as noted by play-by-play announcer Mark Followill, this was equally good work from Mavericks television broadcast cameraman Gregg Schmidt.
