DRAFT: #18 [Green] & #31 [Terry] & trade for #36 [Tyler Bey]

[Mavs2019]

Sam Vecenie, The Athletic draft guru, made this Mavs draft big board for pick #18:

1. Kira Lewis
2. Devin Vassel
3. Aaron Nesmith
4. Tyrese Maxey
5. Theo Maledon
6. Saddiq Bey
7. (trade)
8. R.J. Hampton
9. Patrick Williams

WILD CARD: Pokusevski (a tough read - Mavs have great international scouting and they know "the truth")

Several guards and centers are mentioned as options at #31. I don't understand why we would go for another PG, unless we trade either Wright or Brunson. Getting back up center could make sense as we will probably not invest more than vet min for that position anyway. It was even mentioned that #40 or lower could probably be bought for cash in this draft.

Final Vecenie thought: "This is a good draft for Dallas and I wouldn't trade the pick if any of the first 6 remains available at #18. I am sure some will."

What does guard mean?

One big advantage / disadvantage of Luka is that we actually need a smaller "SG", who can actually switch and defend faster/smaller PGs. In that sense, we can still draft a positional/nominal PG or a small SG, who´d be undersized for the classical position of SG, but fits better into our team construct.

There we definitely have a need. We could do with a PG/SG (what Wright was supposed to be) and a SG/SF type defender.

Generally bigs either have to be able to shoot or be outrageously good defensively, otherwise you are not getting paid.  That means there are not many advantages to drafting just for back-up big potential, when you can sign them for minimal costs in free agency.

On the other hand being a semi-competent scorer/wing defender gets you paid better in free agency, so the cap-gain margin on a rookie deal is much better for a guard/wing than big/center.

I think the Mavs will just take the BPA approach.

Luka gives us the roster flexibility to make it work. Even Porzingis will need his rest/recovery periods during the regular season, so in case a rookie center shows outrageous promise, he can find enough minutes.