2026 NBA draft thread

[Scott41theMavs]

1 I would not be in the trade-down biz. Just find BPA at that point, and make your pick. The odds are close to certain they will end up with either a top-4 pick, or a good guard prospect from the pool of a half-dozen waiting to be picked (Acuff, Wagler, Flemings, Burries, Brown, Philon). I'm good with picking BPA. 

2 As far as the way the play-in will impact the draft, since it's right on top of us, I'm the guy who prefers to let the games of the next couple days get played, and then see where things end up.

3 My highest draft-related event of interest anytime soon will actually be on Monday. Do they win the 7-8 coin flip with ATL? 

For anyone curious, here's where slots 7 and 8 have ended up after the lottery, in the current odds-flattened setup:
Slot 7 - 1,4,4,4,7,9,9
Slot 8 - 2,3,8,8,8,10,2

4 One perhaps-meaningful item about the draft. If there are a whole pool of players who TRULY offer the exact same potential (MAYBE like those 6 guards), there's a better-than-0 advantage to the team ending up with a lower pick. The player is the same, but the salary being paid is notably different. For example, the salary diff between pick 5 and pick 10 would be about 1/3 of the salary each year (9,677,000 vs 6,418,000 the first year). While not major diff in NBA terms, by yr 4 the salaries would be almost 4M apart. If the payroll is tight, an extra 4M could help a lot.

Would I want the Mavs trade down to save salary and to assume the players are all the same? No. I want the best choice they can figure. But ....

Look at it this way - I see two major talent cutoff points in this year's draft - after four, and after nine. What do the Mavs really need to happen? Only one of the top four players is going to give them sufficient improvement for next year (in spite of being a rookie) and for the few years after since we do not have our own picks. If the Mavs don't move, the ship has sailed and the pooch is screwed, so to speak. I don't believe any one guy after four is going to make enough difference - Acuff's defense offsets the fantastic offensive impact he will have (and the Mavs won't pick 5th or 6th, where he's going, anyway). At that point, for this draft to be as impactful as Nico's idiocy made it necessary to be, I think they need to grab two guys who will be perennial quality starters rather than one barely-star. I've already said I want no part of Brown with a top nine pick. If they're picking tenth and Philon and the other good guards are gone, then I would be actively angry *if* they had the opportunity to grab two mid-teen picks in this draft and didn't.

Of course, it all depends on the mind of the guy making the picks. If he's a Keith Grant, it's not going to matter where we pick. If it's a Presti, then I will trust him to make the right picks/decisions wherever that may be.