Exum ready to prove mettle
Fresh off leading Australia to bronze, oft-injured guard feeling healthy
GALVESTON — Word spread quickly throughout the Tokyo Olympics basketball tournament as Dante Exum filled a role off the Australian bench.
Exum looked quick again. He looked explosive. He seemed to be an NBA free agent that someone just might sign in the remaining weeks before training camp, after the bulk of moves had been made and roster spots filled.
“I was saying that, as well,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “He looks quick. In the Olympics, he was attacking closeouts, getting to the rim, dunking, all kinds of things. Yeah, I was surprised because I didn’t get a chance to see him last season, so I didn’t really know what we had. I’m getting a feel right now.”
Exum, acquired from the Cavaliers in the James Harden trade, never played for the Rockets last season. He has had more practices with them in Galveston than last season in Houston as he rehabbed a calf injury.
That was thought to be the end of his Rockets tenure before he was signed to a three-year, $8.1 million non-guaranteed contract with another $6.9 in potential bonuses last month. He will have to compete for a roster spot. But Exum was the fifth player taken in the 2014 draft and in between the injuries that had so often short-circuited his career, has often shown the potential that made him a coveted prospect out of high school in Australia.
“I feel great,” Exum said. “I feel probably the best I felt since I’ve gotten into the league. I feel strong, healthy, ready to take on 82 games.”
Exum, who has not played a full season since his rookie year and missed all of his second NBA season with an ACL injury, has averaged just 24.3 games in the past four seasons because of an assortment of injuries. But he is still just 26 years old, healthy again and playing in Rockets training camp much as he had in his head-turning run to the bronze medal in Tokyo.
“It was definitely a grueling process,” Exum said of his free agency road back to the Rockets. “I think when I went to the Olympics, I was just focused on that, focused on getting a medal. After that, it was just trying to find the right place, the right fit. I just want to play and I felt Houston gave me the opportunity to do that.
“We always stayed in contact with them. When the opportunity arose, we started talking, we said this is the place I want to be. I like the direction they are heading in.”
Exum helped lead the late charge past Slovenia for the medal, scoring or assisting on 13 points in a 20-8 run to blow the game open, a run that included a pair of 3s and a drive to a twohanded slam.
Exum had 12 points in that game, 14 in the semifinals against the United States. In both games, he matched up with NBA stars, including taking turns down the stretch against Luka Doncic. He made 13 of 17 shots, 5 of 7 3s, in the final four games of the Olympics.
He appears to have picked up where he left off.
“He has that veteran savvy,” Silas said. “He’s showing defensive intensity and quickness. And he knows what he’s doing on the floor. I wouldn’t say it’s something that stands out since we’re so young, but it stands out because early in camp when you’re trying to install things, it’s good to have people who has seen things before and kind of have that experience under their belt.”
Much of the emphasis in camp has been on the defensive end where Exum said Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green are “elite” at creating shots. His own ability to defend could be valuable to the Rockets and in resurrecting his own career.
“One of the reasons I’m definitely here is my defensive ability,” Exum said. “I think that’s one thing in this league you need to have not only going into the regular season but into the playoffs when this team becomes a playoff team and playoff contender.
“I’ve been out with injuries a lot. Me coming back is just trying to show I can one, stay health, and two, have an impact on the game, which I know he can.”
If the NBA had forgotten, he has a new bronze medal — and a chance with the Rockets — to prove it.