Former Utah Jazz Top Pick Finally Sticking in NBA

Over the weekend, former Utah Jazz top-five pick Dante Exum officially signed a new contract ahead of the 2025-26 season.

According to the NBA's transaction log, the Dallas Mavericks signed Exum to a one-year deal for next season. Dallas had initially agreed to the contract with Exum nearly two months ago. However, due to cap implications, the Mavericks had to wait, waive-and-stretch Olivier Maxence-Prosper, and now have the 2014 lottery pick back on for his third season with the team.

The Dallas Mavericks have officially re-signed guard Dante Exum.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) September 1, 2025

For Exum, he's wound up carving out a solid rotational role since being in Dallas. He had initially joined the team after a short stint overseas in Serbia in 2023, and now has built himself into one of the Mavericks' stronger perimeter defenders and a much-improved shooter from three (47.2 3P% on 2.1 attempts per game) since his time in Utah.

Exum spent his first five and a half seasons in the league with the Jazz, but never quite found his footing as the prospect he was hyped to be coming out of Australia. From 2014 to 2020, Exum appeared in just 215 total games for Utah and started in 68, suffering from a barrage of injury troubles throughout his tenure.

In that timeframe, he averaged 5.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.2 assists, paired with vastly different shooting numbers than he's logging now, with a 40.1% clip from the field and 30.5% from three.

Dec 17, 2018; Houston, TX, USA; Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum (11) dribbles the ball during the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

His time with the Jazz would inevitably come to an end at the 2020 trade deadline when Exum would be dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers– his home for the next season and a half, where he would go on to hit the overseas route, to then end up with the Mavericks, where he is now.

For the Jazz, things didn't quite pan out as expected with their top pick over a decade ago, but now seeing how he's developed his game into being a quality 3&D player and returning for another season at age 30, it's a notably impressive turnaround, and proof that even if a player may start their career off rocky, that doesn't mean it's the end of the story.

Exum will be returning from an injury-riddled campaign in 2024 to a roster in Dallas that has some pretty tall expectations. With Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, and possibly Kyrie Irving returning from injury, the Mavericks might have a pretty competitive roster in store, and one that Exum might end up being a critical bench piece for.

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