Mavs Coach Jared Dudley on OMax Prosper: 'He Has a Little Siakam in Him'

Dallas Mavericks rookie OMax Prosper recently told DallasBasketball.com that Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam is a player he studies, and assistant coach Jared Dudley is able to see that in Prosper's game.

Dalton Trigg | Sep 4, 2023

In this story:

Dallas Mavericks

With the Dallas Mavericks preparing to start training camp later this month, the hype surrounding their first-round picks in the 2023 NBA Draft continues to build.

In a recent interview with our Mavs Step Back Podcast, Olivier-Maxence Prosper named a handful of current NBA players he's modeled his game after, including Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam.

"Model my game after ... I try to take bits and pieces from different players," Prosper said. "A guy that I really like the way he plays is Mikal Bridges. I like the way he plays, a two-way player, you know, can knock down the open shots, push in transition with his length and size ... Guys like Pascal [Siakam] growing up too, watching him play for the Raptors, I like that a lot. I'm just trying to take bits and pieces from every player and become the most complete player I can be overall."

Prosper's studying has been effective, as Mavs assistant coach Jared Dudley, who joined Marc Stein's "The Saturday Stein Line with Marc Stein" over the weekend, is able to see glimpses of Siakam in his game.

"[OMax] goes extremely hard," Dudley said. "He has a little [Pascal] Siakam in him."

Although Prosper has a long way to go in order to reach the level of Siakam, who is a two-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA player, and a champion, the physical tools are already there, and he's willing to put in the work to realize his potential.

"I plan on having a significant impact," Prosper tells DallasBasketball.com. "I want to come in and be a guy that's in the rotation and contributes to winning. That's my outlook for my season.

"[Be] a guy that's coming in and asked to guard the best player on the other side. And a guy that's going to, every game, get better and improve, and get the confidence of his coaches and teammates. And then, end the end, [I'm] going to be a big contributor to this team's success. That's the way I look at my season."

Published Sep 4, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.