Mavericks want to bring back Dante Exum, but will they trade (or waive) Prosper or Hardy to do it?

With Kyrie Irving out for most, if not all, of the coming season as he recovers from a torn ACL, the Dallas Mavericks are looking for depth to put behind offseason acquisition D’Angelo Russell at the point. What they’d like to do is bring back Dante Exum, who has spent the last two seasons with the team (although he played in just 20 games last season following wrist surgery) and would return on a veteran minimum contract.

The problem: Bringing Exum in, even on the minimum, bumps Dallas above the second apron of the luxury tax, a place they do not want to be. That has Dallas “focused on finding a new home via trade” for forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper, who is in his final year of his rookie contract, a move reported by Jake Fischer at The Stein Line. Prosper, the No. 24 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, was sent to Dallas in a draft-night trade by Sacramento, but has never found a steady spot in Jason Kidd’s rotation.

Jaden Hardy is also available for a trade, Fischer said. The guard, about to enter his fourth NBA season, averaged 8.7 points a game last season in Dallas.

Trading either Prosper (set to earn $3 million this season) or Hardy (with three years and $18 million remaining on his contract) would mean attaching a second-round pick to the deal as a sweetener. Dallas doesn’t want to give up those picks, which has the Mavericks considering another option — waiving and stretching a player to create cap space.

That must be done by a league deadline of Friday at 5 PM Eastern. Doing so with Hardy creates plenty of cushion to bring in Exum, and if Dallas is serious about holding onto those picks, that may be the option.

It’s something to watch, whatever is happening it likely happens in the next 24 hours.