Whenever we all suffered through that miserable, awful, awkward hour of television that ESPN forced us to see in order to watch the 2018 Draft Lottery last Tuesday, of course we had our sights set on our beloved Mavericks landing a top three pick. After an uncomfortable interview with Jerry West, who seemed more like a grandpa who missed out on his usual afternoon nap because his noisy grandkids were over than an NBA executive, it was time to reveal the order of the picks. Where would the Mavs land?
Once the Orlando Magic landed the sixth pick in the draft, I was pretty content with Dallas officially having a top five pick in the NBA draft for the first since I became a fan back at the beginning of the millennium. I even said to my wife, “I would be totally fine with them landing any pick one through five.”
Of course I said that thinking they wouldn’t be any lower than third and wouldn’t you know it?? They were THE VERY NEXT TEAM CALLED.
Within ten minutes I had sunken into a sad place where I was convinced the team had pretty much landed in the absolute worst spot possible. Outside of the top two of landing the seemingly for sure star types of Deandre Ayton and Luka Doncic and even beyond the likes of Marvin Bagley III and Jaren Jackson, Jr… they were in lottery no-man’s land. Suffering through nights of rooting for lineups that were unlike like anything I had seen on a past Mavs team (I mean that in the worst way possible) had led to just the fifth pick in this year’s draft. The same pick that boasts a recent history featuring the likes of Mario Hezonja in 2015 and Dante Exum in 2014.
Aaron Harrison played 48 minutes in the insanely terrible season finale for this?
Maybe it wasn’t all bad…
Once we all took a breath and accepted that the Mavs were going to have to work with the fifth overall pick, it was easy to accept that University of Texas big man Mohamed Bamba was the likely pick. After all, the guy has a wingspan the size of… something eight feet long. There plain and simply aren’t a lot of things that fit that description. The Mavs are a team that have been one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA for as long as I can remember. Here is a list of their list of team rebounding finishes since their 2011 title run.
- 2017-2018: 48.6 (29th)
- 2016-2017: 44.9 (30th)
- 2015-2016: 50 (23rd)
- 2014-2015: 50.1 (23rd)
- 2013-2014: 47.4 (27th)
- 2012-2013: 49.1 (23rd)
- 2011-2012: 50.4 (15th)
Clearly, this is a team that could use a big man to lock down the boards for them. They could use a big man to run pick and rolls with Dennis Smith Jr. for years to come. However, they can’t use the fifth pick in this year’s draft on that type of player. At the end of the day, Bamba’s ceiling is less than a franchise player and that’s not acceptable after all this team did to lose games this season.
The Mavericks, though not as much as other teams that also fell in the draft lottery (Hello, Memphis), openly tanked games towards the end of this season to guarantee their worst record possible. A franchise doesn’t do that for a complimentary piece. This team didn’t lose its most games since the darkest time in franchise history to add a very nice, yet limited big man at a time where players of his body type are slowly losing their place in the league.
Mark Cuban didn’t get fined $600,000 just to take a solid contributor.
Dallas is here to make a major splash . They’re trying to find a kind of player that can be the new face of the franchise.; the kind of player that can alter the entire course of the franchise. They are here to swing for the fences. No solid contact for a single here. This team did too much of a disservice to its loyal veteran players, coaches and fans this season to settle for that.
From where they’ll be picking, there’s only one player who gas the chance to make that kind of impact: Michael Porter, Jr.
I’m not going to sit here and break down Porter Jr’s game because I’m sure there’s a large majority of #MavsTwitter who could do it better than me, but it’s clear that Dallas needs a go-to scorer and the long, uber-athletic Michael Porter Jr. has the look and confidence of one.
Of course his lone season at Missouri was less than outstanding with his severe back injury that sidelined him for close to the entire year, but the young man could have easily been the no doubt #1 overall pick if he stayed healthy. Now the Mavs need to take advantage of any other team’s hesitancy to take him and get the guy who could be the 25 point per game scorer this team has been searching for since even before Dirk Nowitzki began to show signs of decline many years ago.
There’s still no real feel on where Michael Porter Jr. could fall in this draft. Some of the different mock drafts online have him going in the following possible places:
If I’m the Dallas front office, I am straight up working the phones non-stop on draft night to get a feel of where the teams behind them are feeling about taking Porter. This rings especially true for the Chicago Bulls at 7th and Cleveland Cavaliers at 8th. A frontcourt of Bamba and sharpshooting big man Lauri Markkanen seems ideal with the potential for team’s having to deeply respect Bamba’s lob threat at the rim and Markannen’s outside shooting. I won’t even try to hammer out specific details of a trade because Twitter is filled with people who love to make you feel dumb about your ideas, but why not try to move back, still get Porter Jr. and then a little something else while you’re at it.
No matter how much #TeamTank wants this team to just quit for the next three seasons, this front office is going to try to get Dirk Nowitzki back to playing meaningful basketball in his final season. The quickest route to that is finding a go-to scorer in Porter Jr. in the draft and then using either cap space or trade to find a serviceable big man to hold down the paint in the meantime. We’ve seen them do it before. We’re looking at you, Zaza Pachulia, Chris Kaman, Samuel Dalembert and Brendan Haywood.
There’s no doubt the Mavericks need to find a long-term answer in the paint. The internal options of Dwight Powell, Johnathan Motley and especially Nerlens Noel seem like long shots to be that answer. However, this team doesn’t need to use perhaps its best chance at a true franchise player since getting Dirk Nowitzki via trade back in 1998 on a solid, but limited ceiling type player like Mohamed Bamba or Wendell Carter from Duke.
I am completely willing to admit that both of those players have a considerably higher career floor than Michael Porter Jr. If his medical situation ends up being not as great as he is claiming it is, it could be one of the worst decisions in franchise history and set this team back for years. The positive side? An athletic and high-flying duo of Dennis Smith Jr. and Michael Porter Jr. are scoring in bunches for the Mavs for at least the next seven to eight years.
There’s still a month until the draft, but let’s hope Donnie Nelson begins making those exploratory calls to get his guy and then more on draft night.
Should Mavs trade back? Let us know your thoughts below!
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