Every Mavericks fan is resigned to fate at this point. Another year in the lottery and hoping for the same luck as 2025. Dreams of Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa lining up alongside Cooper Flagg tempt many, and the front office is likely among them. However, tradeable assets are absent in Dallas. Flagg is undoubtedly untradeable, and Kyrie Irving seems intent on retiring a Maverick. Dallas has little more than a couple of solid starters, cap space and a lottery pick to play with.
This begs the question: what to do on draft day? The uncertainty of a draft pick is lost on some fans. No matter how talented a player is, they are still unproven. The upside would be franchise-changing. The Mavs have a 7.5% chance, as it stands, to get the No. 1 pick for the second year in a row. The question begs answering.
Playing The Lottery: What Should The Mavericks Do With Their Pick?
14-11th Overall Pick: Take the best player available
While the Mavericks probably won’t end up on the tail end of the lottery, it wouldn’t be the worst place to be. Their best option here would be to take the best player available. A young board-crashing four would be perfect to develop alongside Flagg.
Washington big man Hannes Steinbach should still be on the board here, but he shows great signs of translating his game to the NBA level with immediate impact. Currently averaging 12.2 rebounds a game in college, pairing him with Dereck Lively or Daniel Gafford as a PF-C combo has lethal potential. A guard could be in play also, but with most of the strong guard talent in the draft being top 10 projected, Steinbach seems the smart move.
10th-5th Overall Pick: Trade Down
This is the last pick that the Mavericks own until 2031. A smattering of confusing swaps and protections ensures that the mavericks have no reason to play poorly until then. It’s a tough predicament, but fortunately, it forces the Dallas Mavericks to build a contender as soon as possible. It would be foolish, however, to ignore the underlying predicament in this scenario.
The Mavericks need more picks to build year over year. A guard isn’t the top priority in Dallas; they need to trade down for assets. This is an incredibly deep draft class, and as much talent will rest in the middle of the first round as it will in the first 10 picks. Fans won’t like it now, but they will later.
MVPs such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were drafted outside the top ten. Proper scouting and analytics often trump hype, and add to that an extra first-round pick either this year or the years coming, talent will be dispersed throughout the team around Cooper Flagg. There is no saying that his perfect running mate must be a top-ten pick.
4th-1st Overall Pick: Trade for a Star
Not every top-four pick is going to be a Cooper Flagg or Luka Doncic. The Mavs already have a generational star in Flagg. It’s hard to develop two of them at once. The Spurs are a fine example of struggling to develop more than one top prospect. While Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper are elite talents in every sense, they must heed to Victor Wembanyama.
Don’t risk it. Kickstart the Flagg era strong. Many teams look set to move on from big players and move into a new era. One shines above all: the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Cap space is set to free up in the offseason, and a reunion with coach Jason Kidd would be life-changing in Dallas. It would likely take a top-four pick and a few players. Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Dereck Lively would be likely candidates for the sake of argument.
This would convert the Dallas Mavericks into a superteam with one move. They would be capitalizing on Kyrie before he starts to decline and changing the culture. Kyrie, Max Christie, Flagg, Giannis and Daniel Gafford. Engrave the Larry O’Brien now. The Mavs must focus on absolutes.
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