The oft-injured Exum made just 20 regular-season appearances for Dallas in 2024-25, posting averages of 8.7 points, 2.8 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 0.6 steals in 18.6 minutes per contest. He showed improvement as a three-point shooter, hitting a career-high 1.2 triples per game at a 43.4 percent clip. Kyrie Irving (knee) will begin the season on the sidelines and may not return until January at the earliest, so the Mavericks brought in D'Angelo Russell to pick up the slack. Exum was re-signed to a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum, and he's currently projected to be Russell's backup until Irving gets the green light to return. Exum is not a high-usage player, and touches won't come easily in an offense that has Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson. Exum is a decent playmaker with a solid steal rate, but with a low minutes projection, he'll be a tough sell outside of very deep formats unless he's able to leapfrog Russell.