NBA Rumors: Mavs, Maxi Kleber Agree to 3-Year, $33M Contract Extension

The Dallas Mavericks are giving veteran forward Maxi Kleber a new contract before the team opens training camp.

Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Kleber is finalizing a three-year, $33 million extension that will keep him with the Mavs through the 2025-26 season.

Kleber has spent his entire NBA career with the Mavs after spending six seasons playing professionally overseas. The German signed with the team in July 2017 and established himself as a key role player primarily off the bench.

Since the start of the 2018-19, Kleber has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in each of the past four seasons.

This marks the second extension Kleber has received from Dallas. The 6'10" power forward got a four-year, $35 million deal in July 2019 that included a team option that the Mavs exercised for this season.

There is some risk for the Mavs with this deal. Since playing a career-high 74 games in 2019-20, Kleber has missed 45 regular-season games over the past two seasons because of injuries.

Kleber will be looking for a bounce-back performance in 2022-23 after an inconsistent showing last season. He averaged 7.0 points per game and set career lows in field-goal percentage (39.8) and free-throw percentage (70.8).

The Mavericks have reasons to be optimistic about Kleber turning things around. He averaged 8.3 points per game and made 38.8 percent of his three-point attempts in 124 games from 2019-21.

Expectations are high in Dallas coming off an appearance in the Western Conference Finals last season. Luka Doncic is an established superstar and a potential MVP candidate this season.

Role players like Kleber will need to play at a high level, especially with Jalen Brunson leaving to join the New York Knicks in free agency, if the Mavs are going to meet their expectations in 2022-23.