There was no one who expected the Dallas Mavericks to hold the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, as they entered last season coming off of a Western Conference Finals appearance with a perennial MVP candidate in Luka Doncic leading the charge.
While Doncic continued to produce eye-popping numbers (32.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.0 assists per game), they took a major step back after allowing Jalen Brunson to walk in free agency to New York and making some other questionable roster moves around Doncic both prior to and during the season. The biggest of those was trading for Kyrie Irving, sending out Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and a first round pick to bring him in. That did not turn the season around as hoped and, in the end, they tanked out the last week of the season to give themselves a chance at retaining their pick (owing anything outside the top-10 to New York).
Irving is now a free agent, and while Dallas is the frontrunner to retain him, they will need to pay him handsomely and have almost no money otherwise to make improvements in free agency. As such, the 10th pick was vital to their ability to upgrade the roster, either as a trade chip to partner with a player like Tim Hardaway Jr. or to just add a young talent. This is a Mavs team that expects to be back in contention next year, but there’s a lot of roster mess to cleanup and not a lot of clear options to do so.
Ultimately, they split the difference, trading down from 10 to 12, moving Davis Bertans’ contract to OKC in the process, helping clear up a bit of their cap sheet problem while still being able to add some young talent to the roster. They then moved back into the first round, taking Richaun Holmes into the trade exception created by the Bertans move alongside the 24th pick.
Roster Needs: 3-and-D wings, rim protection, general depth
Dereck Lively (No. 12 overall), B+: Things worked out well for Dallas. The Mavericks moved down two spots and picked a guy they could’ve very reasonably taken at No. 10. Lively isn’t a finished product, but he was a defensive monster in the second half of the college season. Dallas needs that kind of defensive presence, and Lively’s offense should be unlocked as a low-usage guy next to Luka Doncic and, perhaps, Kyrie Irving.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper (No. 24 overall), B+: Dallas could use a two-way forward, much in the way that most teams could. Prosper fits the bill as a high-quality defender who can also space the floor. He also doesn’t need the ball to succeed on offense, which fits nicely with the Mavericks’ system.
2023 Free Agents:
Kyrie Irving (UFA)
Christian Wood (UFA)
Dwight Powell (UFA)
Justin Holiday (UFA)
Markieff Morris (UFA)
Theo Pinson (UFA)
Frank Ntilikina (UFA)
Roster:
Luka Doncic
Tim Hardaway Jr.
Davis Bertans
Maxi Kleber
Reggie Bullock
JaVale McGee
Josh Green
Jaden Hardy
