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

[Scott41theMavs]

- Here's my early estimative of who will be on the board when (if) we pick at #18:

Poku, Green, Terry, Maledon, Smith and 1 of Anthony/Hampton/Lewis.

.

See, if that's right, *that's* why you don't trade that pick for Victor Oladipo. No to Maledon and Poku, and Green, Anthony, and Lewis would have all been my "settle" picks (as in, my "maybe we should have traded this pick for Dipo after all" picks), but Terry, Smith, and possibly-Hampton are great fits for Dallas. If you have a choice between Terry and Smith, then that's a very good pick to have. I doubt it, but I would be ecstatic if we kept the pick and at least one of those two was still on the board.

Because all the mentioned guys are automatically better or better fits than Oladipo? I don´t know when this new movement started but I really don´t get why we went from weakest draft class in the last couple of years to multiple can´t miss prospects that are worth more than a player that at worst is an upgrade over THJ.
Maybe it´s just that time of the year. Less than a month to go. Time to hype up at least 10 guys. One of them will probably turn out to be a good/great player and we will get the I told you so posts for the rest of his career.

I am on record as being completely out on a THJ-18 trade for Oladipo. That would be a horrendous waste, and I say that as a guy who doesn't like THJ's lack of defense at all. The ideas I have seen including Curry being shipped out are many times worse - simply abominable. I would strongly dislike Wright-Jackson-18 for Oladipo, but it makes far more sense - I like the idea of having a *ton* of room and options next summer. This draft is touted as weak in terms of stars, but quite strong and deep in terms of potentially consistent role players. I would say that most of the supposedly "high ceiling" guys are going to be busts, but because you generally go after those guys in the lottery, they should push many of the role players down to the mid-teens. I think Ball, Edwards, Hayes, Williams, possibly Anthony, and especially Toppin are going to be busts for where they are taken if it's in the lottery. To clarify - I think Ball will be a decent player, but underwhelming as a top two pick. Wiseman is boom or bust - depends on how well he can stretch the floor. Lewis and Maxey are boom-or-bust. McDaniels is certainly a high-ceiling guy, but his college career suggests that it doesn't matter whether he's picked 1st or 60th - he'll be playing in China after two years trying to make it in the league. On the other hand, Okoru, Okongwu, Avdija, Haliburton, and Vassell (if he "un-fixes" his shot - what the hell happened) will be very strong role players who should be able to help their teams win more games this year. The next tier of guys - S. Bey, Achiuwa, Smith, and Terry (I would also include Nesmith, but I don't like him for the Mavs because no D) - won't be as good of role players as that first tier, but they'll be fairly immediate contributors, and might be there at 18 (those other five won't). Hampton is a boom or bust guy, but his ceiling is high enough, especially with the reports of his improved shot, that he would absolutely be more worthy of a flyer at 18, IMHO, than Oladipo.

Let me clarify, too - what makes the guys I happen to like so preferable to Oladipo is that 1) I am convinced, as I said earlier, that Dipo is a rental, whereas 2) you'd have the #18 guy on a four-year rookie salary at a time when we will need cheap young players like that who play above their contracts. Unless we completely screw the pooch on the pick, it will be like having another DFS at worst.