The Dallas Mavericks were active this offseason adding to their frontcourt. Among those changes remained a constant, though, as the Mavs re-signed center Dwight Powell to return for his 10th season with the franchise.
On Friday at Mavs Media Day, Powell was asked about those frontcourt additions, which included acquiring rookies Dereck Lively and O-Max Prosper in the first round of this year's NBA Draft.
"Good, positive, healthy energy," Powell said. "The gym is buzzing in a really good way. We got a bunch of young guys that are hungry to learn."
The Mavs got an early start to training camp last week, and they're now off to Abu Dhabi to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in two preseason contests starting on Thursday before heading to Spain to face Luka Doncic's former team, Real Madrid.
"Guys are locked in," Powell said. "Trying to absorb everything that we're putting out there, especially these first few days have been electric. Those young guys rejuvenating some of the energy in the building is great."
Everything we've heard, including Powell's comments, coming out of Mavs training camp, and even previously during Summer League, was that both Lively and Prosper are eager to learn and have right mindset entering their rookie seasons.
"For [Lively and Prosper], I think they've grown tremendously, even [just] from Summer League, and they're going to continue to grow this year regardless of whether they're with the Mavs or the Legends just because of their approach. It starts there with their foundation," Texas Legends head coach Jordan Sears told DallasBasketball.com. "Their mental makeup, I think is phenomenal."
If both rookies can continue learning at their current pace, they will earn minutes in head coach Jason Kidd's rotation and help Dallas alongside Powell and the rest of the Mavs' frontcourt. In fact, Kidd plans to start both Lively and Prosper alongside Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Grant Williams to start the preseason.
"This team right now, I'm very excited to be a part of it," Powell said. "There's a very bright future with this group."
More must-reads: