2026 NBA draft thread

[Chicagojk]

is it bad that I don't really trust Masai on this and that he may mess up this draft?

Masai is a great GM, especially at making trades. But his drafting history to me leaves a lot to be desired. With the Nuggets he was in control of the 2011-2014 NBA drafts. The picks he made:

2011- Kenneth Faried (Again, a solid pick given the talent, but missed out on multiple notable players. Reggie Jackson, Jimmy Butler, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Chandler Parsons).
2012- Evan Fournier (Solid pick. B+. Missed out on Draymond and Khris Middleton, but a forgivable mistake)
2013- Traded 27th pick Rudy Gobert for the 46th pick Erick Green+Cash. (First massive major mistake of Masai's Denver tenure.  Their current C rotation was Mozgov and Javale McGee.)

Then he moved to Toronto. His drafts are as follows:

2014- Bruno Caboclo + Deandre Daniels. (The infamous 2 years away from 2 years away Bruno. Masai missed SEVERAL guys. Dwight Powell being one of them. Some others: Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, Joe Harris, Jordan Clarkson, Clint Capela, oh and Jokic).
2015- Delon Wright. (solid pick, of course missed a couple of guys you could argue better, but nothing to really complain this year. BUT this draft will come back later.)
2016- Jakob Poeltl + Pascal Siakam. (the biggest grand slam of any draft year for Masai. Got an all star at the end of the draft and a very solid center).
2017- OG Anunoby (another grand slam back to back. Found Anunoby at the end of the 1st and set the Raptors up again well).
2018- None
2019- Dewane Hernandez (2nd to last pick of the draft. Honestly ignorable)
2020- Malachi Flynn + Jalen Harris (this was the COVID draft, where a lot of teams made some questionable choices, but he did miss here).
2021- Scottie Barnes+Blanton+David Johnson (In an incredible surprise move, he took Barnes very early, and it was a good draft all considering, it was considered a gamble, but it paid off well. The other two late 2nds didn't really amount to much at all.)
2022- Christian Koloklo ( A miss all things considering. Kamm was obsessed with this guy, but didn't pan out. Lots of other late 2nds. J-Dub, Max Christie, Jayden Hardy)
2023- Gradey Dick (a minor miss, but its still panning out).
2024- Ja'Kobe Walter (a moderate miss, but still panning out).
2025- Collin Murray Boyles (although it was reported that Masai did not handle this draft).


Overall, he's made some pretty poor drafting choices. But when he hits, he hits big. I suppose such is the way of the NBA draft, not sure why I have this pessimism. Its also easy to look back with hindsight and pick apart moves, but the Mavs are at an important juncture and they can't mess this up. Maybe it's just because I've become accustomed to the Mavs FO being incompetent over the years so I expect the worst. Plus, for whatever reason, the last 4 years of drafts by the Mavs were all run pretty damn well with solid scouting and picks. Lively trade, Hardy trade, Omax+Holmes trade for free, and of course Cooper Flagg sheer luck.

Masai's trades I'm excited for. We've seen time and again he can wheel and deal.

Trades:
2011- Carmelo trade.
2011- Traded Raymond Felton for Andre Miller
2012- Traded Aaron Afflalo+Al Harrington for Andre Igoudala
2014- Traded Bargnani for Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quinten Richardson, NYK's 9th pick (Poeltl) + 2 2nds
2015- traded Greviez Vasquez for a future 1st (which ended up being OG Anunoby) and 46th pick, which was Norman Powell.
2017- traded Terrence Ross+a future FRP for Serge Ibaka
2018- Traded Derozan, Poeltl, and their 2019 FRP for Kawhi+Danny Green.
2021- Traded Kyle Lowry for Precious Achiuwa and Goran Dragic
2023- Traded OG, Achiuwa, and Flynn for RJ Barrett, Quickley and a 2024 2nd
2024- Traded Siakam for Bruce Brown, Nwora, Kira Lewis Jr and 3 FRPs

His trades are legendary. Draft not so much.

All of this ramble to say, I hope Masai is as good as advertised.

Masai has had a bit of a cold spell for a bit.   There may have been several reasons for that.    I think he will make the decisions, but will rely on Schmitz and others to allow him to make smart decisions by giving him good intel.   Time will tell.

I really liked what Schmitz said in one of his interviews.  He said how they are judged who they pick and that is fair of course.  He was discussing the full process though and having everything rated properly so you can handle when a draft night does not go your way.   Donnie will always have Dirk, Luka and Jalen on his resume.  That is a freaking great resume.   At the same time, supposedly Dallas never had a draft board when he ran the team.    It sort of checks out.  Donnie was great finding talent that would grow into all time greats, but some of the other work was missed and I think we saw this often.

I don't know how true this is, but I did hear this from Chad Ford recently.    Danny Ainge is one of the better GM's in league history.   His reputation is well deserved.   The Tatum draft pick was genius.    Chad Ford was saying that Ainge loved two players in that draft:  Tatum and Josh Jackson.  If Tatum was not available he would have gone with Jackson.    One is a hall of famer and the other is out of the league.  Sometimes that is the breaks.