Ajinca, Miller, Sharp were impressive in first day of summer league practice

As the Dallas Mavericks started preparing Monday for the NBA2k Summer League 2024 — which begins this weekend in Las Vegas — Jared Dudley explained the goals that have been set up for him.

And that includes getting second-year forward Oliver-Maxence Prosper up to speed.

“The goal is always to win — I don’t care what the squad is,” said Dudley, who will serve as the Mavs’ summer league coach for the second straight year. “Obviously, last year we were more involved because we lost early, we had more time.

“We had vet camp. The G League did the vet camp, so we’re coming in a little bit later. The goal should be to develop O-Max as a rotational player, to find some hidden gems for the G League and win as many games as possible.”

The first day of summer league practice for the Mavs was Monday, and rookie Melvin Ajinca was one of the players who grabbed Dudley’s undivided attention. Selected No. 51 overall in the NBA Draft on June 27 after being acquired in a draft-day trade with the New York Knicks, Ajinca is a 6-8, 218-pound forward from France who quickly made a first impression with Dudley.

“He’s taller than me, he can handle and decision-make better, so I can see him doing a little bit of point forward,” Dudley said. “He’s a 6-8 lefty that can decision-make. I’m not going to say it’s unique, but it’s a high skill set to have in the NBA.

“The question is how fast do you learn, how tough you are, and then your work ethic. That’s something that we don’t know. That’s what we’ll find out.”

Ajinca turned 20 on June 26, and the Mavs believe he has a bright future as an NBA prospect.

“He’s smooth,” Dudley said. “We had a drill – guards vs. bigs – and he was finishing over everyone. For him to have that, we’ll see now if it translates down in the end.”

Emanuel Miller, a local product from TCU, also caught Dudley’s eye on the first day of practice. A 6-6, 215-pound rookie forward, Miller averaged 15.8 points and 6.1 rebounds while shooting 48.6 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from three-point range this past season for the Horned Frogs.

“Miller has an NBA body already,” Dudley said. “He looks like a UFC fighter. His physicality is going to be crucial.”

Also crucial on Monday was center Jamarion Sharp. A 7-5, 235-pounder, Sharp averaged 7.4 points. 7.7 rebounds and 4.1 blocks for Western Kentucky during the 2022-23 season.

“Sharp probably had 10 blocks today,” Dudley said. “He protects the paint.

“I expect him at that center position holding us down here as much as he can.”

Dudley had a simple message for the 15 players who are on the Mavs’ summer league roster.

“The big thing I tell them is there will be some 25-point scorers in the summer league that will not play in the NBA next year,” he said. “There will be some guys that average five or six (points) that will. Take the stats out.

“Every team has two stars. Can you defend multiple positions, can you stay in front (of the offensive player), can you drive and kick, can you decision-make at a high enough level, and what is your asset? Are you a shooter? Are you a grinder? Are you a scrap guy? The little things. And that’s what they have to find.”

And as those players are trying to find where they fit into the equation for the Mavs, Dudley and his staff will be chronicling it all and relaying it back to coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison.

“What I try to tell them overall, it’s hard listening to your social media and your friends,” Dudley said. “They want you to average 20 (points). But that’s not really it.

“We had two guys to do (NBA) deals last year in the summer league that came off the bench. Braxton Key played three games and had a game-winning dunk and went to Denver.”

Keys wound up playing 20 games for the Denver Nuggets this past season while elevating his resume during his summer league tenure with the Mavs last year.

“So, it’s not about playing time,” Dudley said. “It’s what you do with that playing time and having fun. The fun should be winning.

“Don’t go to Vegas and go out. You guys got to get jobs and business. You’ve got to support families and kids.”

Overall, Monday was more or less a getting to know the players and what they can do type of day for Dudley.

“In talking to J-Kidd, we always do about 80 percent of what we usually do (on the first day of summer league practice) – our breakdowns of our defense,” Dudley said. “We call it channel one.

“We keep it real basic for the first day, working on our shell principals of now trapping the box. Offensively, keeping space – what we call open low dribble handoff. But overall, it’s the details of how we run our defense, and offensively just spacing right now.”

Getting the players comfortable in their surroundings was also part of the plan for opening day.

“We worked for about two hours — a little scrimmaging at the end,” Dudley said. “But right now it’s teaching the next two days, and then when we get into Wednesday, Thursday we’ll be a little bit more up and down.”

The Mavs will play their first game in Las Vegas on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT against the Utah Jazz on the campus of Nevada-Las Vegas. All 30 NBA teams will be in Vegas and each one is assured of playing at least five games.

“I thought it was a good first day,” Dudley said. “Every coach says that no matter what. There were a lot of surprises that maybe last year we certainly didn’t have.”

The Mavs finished summer league play last year with an impressive 4-1 record.

For more information on everything Mavs Summer League, please visit Mavs.com/SummerLeague.

X: @DwainPrice