2026 NBA draft thread

[Scott41theMavs]

I think it is the opposite and want to highlight what I already pointed out earlier. What we have and what we lost due to Nico cannot be changed. How we use what we have is what matters. I don't think that any GM would ever follow my logic because they have more pressure to perform and get the Mavs back on track as fast as possible. The question is if as fast as possible back into contention is the best way. Or if a slower and more patient approach is actually more likely to succeed.
And in my opinion asset accumulation is more important than anything else right now. Otherwise the entire process will slowly run into the same problems that we saw in the past when the Mavs rushed rebuilds around Dirk and Luka. Simply lacking the necessary assets to go for a real upgrade. Limiting the potential ceiling of a Flagg lead team.
Right now the Mavs have the opportunity to accumulate the necessary assets. In 3-4 years it will be contender or bust.

In any event, this will have to be an extremely unorthodox rebuild due to not having our picks for the next four years. 

To me, the most important skillset for a GM is genius-level talent scouting. Cf. Nellie. That's even more important for the Mavs when their superstar will only be a second-year player and when we will have first-round picks, but very low ones. All but the absolute worst of drafts have major diamonds after the lottery. Any team-building success we have is going to be predicated on our new guy being top 3 in the league in that ability. 

As for your take of presumably trading off all of our vets, none but Kyrie is likely to get you a very high pick in return. If they accumulate a big stash of post-lottery picks, then having a GM who is asymptotically perfect at finding rotation players in the later first round is going to be even more important.