2023 DRAFT: Mavs take Lively, OMP, sign Mike Miles to 2-way, sign Jordan Walker

[Knutsen]

I actually don't think his issues were entirely to do with winning. He basically said at the end, paraphrasing, that he likes to have fun, and that the locker room was a bad, dysfunctional environment to be around and he couldn't have fun and therefore did not enjoy playing basketball. The guy literally hates every aspect of practice and training except for the part that involves playing ball, specifically because he only likes the fun part. He's even intimated retiring early if basketball stops being fun for him.

I actually think if the locker room atmosphere is good, with team guys and players that are bought in and creating a good environment to be around, that's what Luka is referring to when it comes to enjoying coming in to work and play ball every day. Obviously winning is a part of that, but the straight up fact of the matter is Luka looked miserable even when this team was the 5th/4th seed. That doesn't match with someone who's only happy if the team is winning. He's looked way happier in the past when the team hasn't been doing nearly as well.

That he straight up said he did not enjoy playing basketball and it being because of winning simply doesn't match up with the results the entire time he looked unhappy, compared to his happiness levels in the past. You might get frustrated and upset, but I don't think you stop enjoying playing basketball altogether just because you are losing, there's something else going on to cause that.

I think there’s a lot of truth in what your saying. He lost a lot of his closest friends and „culture guys“ on the team with Brunson, Boban, DFS and also Kokoskov. That combined with the drop from being a top 4 team and sniffing success in 2022 surely made an impact on him. The team just didn’t mesh last season - when you listen to what Jokic was saying after the finals, I think that spirit of togetherness and cohesion is what Doncic needs as well, a bit like a family far away from home.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

I think there’s a lot of truth in what your saying. He lost a lot of his closest friends and „culture guys“ on the team with Brunson, Boban, DFS and also Kokoskov. That combined with the drop from being a top 4 team and sniffing success in 2022 surely made an impact on him. The team just didn’t mesh last season - when you listen to what Jokic was saying after the finals, I think that spirit of togetherness and cohesion is what Doncic needs as well, a bit like a family far away from home.

While all this may be true, I think Luka has some personal shi*t going on in his life, that we're not privy to.

[dirkfansince1998]

Stolen from discord:

[SleepingHero]

Stolen from discord:

Going to be interesting to see if this translates in the league. If OMP, Bufkin, and Hendricks are the bastions of winning for their respective teams maybe we have a new metric to hold above all else when analyzing prospects.

[Chicagojk]

One of the top 4 grades in the Athletic review of draft
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Dallas Mavericks

• Traded No. 10 and Dāvis Bertāns to Oklahoma City for No. 12; selected Dereck Lively II (12th)
• Acquired Richaun Holmes and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (24th) from Sacramento

I love everything about what Dallas did on draft night. I’ve been skeptical at times regarding Nico Harrison’s approach, but he deserves an immense amount of credit for what he pulled off.

Entering the evening with the 10th pick, I wrote pre-draft that the Mavericks’ goals were to move off salary and add some cost-controlled depth. Mission accomplished on both fronts. They moved down two spots and offloaded Bertāns’ contract to Oklahoma City, a deal worth $17 million this season that has a partial guarantee of $5 million next season. They took Lively at No. 12, likely the same player they would have selected at No. 10 had they kept the pick. I’m a big-time believer in Lively and had a top-10 grade on him. By the end of his freshman season at Duke, I thought there was not a more impactful defensive player in the entire country, and on offense, Lively should feast as a rim runner in a well-spaced Dallas offense. Luka Dončić should have no issues feeding him for eight to 12 points per game as a roller or as a transition partner due to his ability to cover ground quickly. Lively is a perfect blend of talent and fit for a team that needs a defensive infrastructure long-term around Dončić and potentially Kyrie Irving.

Using a trade exception, the Mavs took on Richaun Holmes’ contract from Sacramento while acquiring the 24th pick in the process, selecting Olivier-Maxence Prosper. The player I’ve compared Prosper to throughout the process is someone Mavericks fans will be very familiar with: Dorian Finney-Smith. Prosper is an elite on-ball defender with immense size at 6-foot-8 in shoes with a 7-foot-1 wingspan. He’s excellent at staying in front of his opposition on the ball and chasing them around screens off-ball. On offense, you want to keep him in a more limited role because he’s not the quickest decision-maker. But Dallas’ offense is tailor-made for him to thrive, as all he’ll be asked to do around Dončić is make catch-and-shoot 3s — again, a perfect blend of filling a need and drafting talent.

In terms of Holmes, I think he is much more likely to be able to rehabilitate some value in Dallas than he would have been in Sacramento. Holmes is a great leaper and finisher around the rim, but, more importantly, he’s an awesome short-roll pick-and-roll scorer, something Dallas really values given how teams often try to play two on the ball against Dončić to get the ball out of his hands. He has one of the best floaters in the NBA, a shot he rode to averaged 12.5 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes per game with Sacramento in the three seasons prior to the team’s acquisition on Domantas Sabonis. To get the most out of Sabonis, the team completely changed its scheme and used its centers in ways that don’t accentuate Holmes’ skills. More than anything, that’s why he got benched. But I think the fit in Dallas in terms of offensive scheme is strong, and Holmes could end up being really useful.

That extra $5 million Dallas saved through all this will allow them to use their full midlevel exception this offseason and should give them a chance to add another valuable two-way player. This is a home run draft for the Mavs.

Grade: A