Maxi Kleber
Kleber in 2019
No. 42 – Dallas Mavericks
PositionPower forward
LeagueNBA
Personal information
Born (1992-01-29) 29 January 1992
Würzburg, Germany
Listed height6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
NBA draft2014: undrafted
Playing career2011–present
Career history
2011–2014Würzburg
2014–2015Obradoiro
2015–2017Bayern Munich
2017–presentDallas Mavericks
Career highlights and awards
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Maximilian Kleber (born 29 January 1992) is a German professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). At 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in), he plays the power forward position.

Early life

Kleber played in the youth ranks of TG Veitshöchheim, SC Heuchelhof and TG Würzburg.[1]

Professional career

Würzburg (2011–2014)

Kleber made his professional debut in Germany's top-flight Basketball Bundesliga during the 2011–12 season, representing the s.Oliver Baskets, a team based in his hometown Würzburg. In his first year, he was a role player on the team with an average of 7 minutes a game. In his second season, he grew to become an important player on the team, that averaged 9.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.[2] In 2012, he declared for the NBA draft before removing his name from the list.[3] He became auto-eligible for the NBA draft in 2014, but was not picked by any team.[4]

Obradoiro (2014–2015)

In the 2014 off-season, he signed a two-year deal with Spanish club Obradoiro CAB.[5] In the 2014–15 ACB season, he was named MVP of round 25 after scoring 36 points against Fuenlabrada.[6] Kleber made 33 appearances in the league that year, averaging 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.[7]

Bayern Munich (2015–2017)

On 1 July 2015, Kleber returned to Germany and signed a two-year deal with Bayern Munich.[8] In 2015–16, he played 24 Bundesliga games for Bayern, including 17 starts, averaging 8.0 points and 4.9 boards per game. He appeared in 37 games (37 starts) during the 2016–17 Bundesliga season, supplying averages of 9.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

Dallas Mavericks (2017–present)

On 13 July 2017, Kleber signed with the Dallas Mavericks.[9] He made his NBA debut on 21 October 2017 against the Houston Rockets.[10] Kleber moved from end of bench piece to key rotation player in his first few years, increasing his points, rebounds, assists and blocks per game numbers in each of his first three seasons. He was re-signed by the Mavericks on 10 July 2019.[11]

On 21 February 2020, Kleber scored a career high 26 points against the Orlando Magic in a 122–106 victory. In the 2019–20 season, Maxi posted a career high 9.1 points per game. He led the league in games played with 74 games and finished 19th in the league in blocks.[12] Kleber played in his first playoffs that year against the 2nd seed LA Clippers. Kleber was tasked with guarding Kawhi Leonard for most of the series. Kleber struggled shooting the ball in the series, averaging 6.7 points per game and making just 5 of his 26 three-point attempts across the six game series.[13]

Kleber began the 2020–21 season strong, averaging 7.4 points per game and shooting 47.2% from three-point range in his first 9 games. Kleber would go on to miss the next 10 games however, as he recovered from COVID-19.[14] Kleber would return to action 2 February 2021 against the Phoenix Suns. He logged 17 minutes of game play, grabbing 6 rebounds and scoring 2 points. Kleber and the Mavericks would go on to lose to the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs in 7 games.

On 18 April 2022, during Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, Kleber scored 25 points and hit eight 3-pointers in a 110–104 win over the Utah Jazz.[15] In the 2022 off-season, he signed a four-year contract extension with the Mavericks.[16]

On 17 March 2023, Kleber made a buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer in a 111–110 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.[17]

National team career

Kleber has also played games for the senior German national team.[18] In 2014, he played for the team during the EuroBasket qualification rounds. Kleber was forced to sit out the 2020 Summer Olympics as he was recovering from an Achilles injury[19]

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 *  Led the league

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2017–18 Dallas 723616.8.489.313.7463.3.7.4.75.4
2018–19 Dallas 711821.2.453.353.7844.61.0.51.16.8
2019–20 Dallas 74*2125.5.461.373.8495.21.2.31.19.1
2020–21 Dallas 504026.8.422.410.9195.21.4.5.77.1
2021–22 Dallas 592124.6.398.325.7085.91.2.51.07.0
2022–23 Dallas 37525.1.456.348.7113.61.4.3.85.9
Career 36314122.9.447.358.7874.71.1.4.97.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2020 Dallas 6633.8.333.192.7506.51.5.31.26.7
2021 Dallas 7426.7.400.400.7143.61.4.4.05.3
2022 Dallas 18025.4.509.436.7144.61.1.2.88.7
Career 311027.3.451.379.7254.71.3.3.77.5

References

  1. ↑ "Maximilian Kleber wechselt nach Spanien". mainpost.de (in German). 2 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Maximilian Kleber Player Profile". Basketball.realgm.com. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Maurer, Matthew. "Maximilian Kleber 2012 Underclassmen". thedraftreview.com. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Maximilian Kleber Player Profile, Bayern Munich, News, Rumors, International Stats, Events Stats, Game Logs, Awards – RealGM". basketball.realgm.com. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Obradoiro announces Maxi Kleber". Sportando.com. 2 July 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Maxi Kleber, Jugador de la Jornada 25" [Maxi Kleber, Player of the Round 25] (in Spanish). ACB.com. 22 March 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "ACB.COM". acb.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "Bayern Munich signs Maximilian Kleber to a two-year contract". sportando.com. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Mavericks Sign Forward Maxi Kleber". National Basketball Association. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "James Harden leads Rockets past Mavericks, 107–91". ESPN. 22 October 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  11. ↑ "Mavs re-sign forward Maxi Kleber". mavs.com. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Maxi Kleber NBA Statistics". 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  13. ↑ "Season Recap". 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  14. ↑ "Dallas Mavs' Maxi Kleber opens up on COVID". 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  15. ↑ "Brunson scores 41, Mavs make 22 3s in Game 2 win vs Jazz". ESPN. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  16. ↑ "Mavs sign Maxi Kleber to contract extension". mavs.com. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  17. ↑ Salao, R.P. (17 March 2023). "Lakers stunned at the buzzer by Maxi Kleber dagger three over Anthony Davis". ClutchPoints. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  18. ↑ "Maxi Kleber International Stats". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  19. ↑ "Dallas Mavericks: Olympic basketball Day 1 recap: Josh Green's debut and more".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maximilian Kleber.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.