Maximization. That’s the one word to best describe the work of the Dallas Mavericks’ front office in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Dallas went into the evening with several glaring holes in their roster with limited assets to fill. This was never going to be a one-night fix of the roster, let alone a one off-season fix. But the moves that Dallas Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison & co. made on Draft night were a complete masterclass in team-building. Let’s take a look at the 2 key trades Dallas pulled off and what it means for the remainder of this off-season.
A Lively Trade
Dallas entered the night with one draft pick and much more than one need to fill. They decided to trade the 10th overall pick paired with Davis Bertans to Oklahoma City for the 12th pick in return. This move in a nutshell was to simply to dump their worst contract to provide more flexibility for team-building this June & July 2023. The result was sliding 2 spots in the draft order and selecting Freshman Center, Dereck Lively II out of Duke, who Dallas has been rumored to be interested in for multiple weeks leading up to the draft. This move alone provided Dallas the flexibility to access the entire Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception in free agency, which starts at roughly $12.4 million in salary in year 1 of the contract of a possible starting-level free agent that the Mavs could acquire. Many in MFFL Land were worried about the prospects of Dallas fully trading out of the draft to dump bad contracts on a team below the salary cap, or to move back out of the lottery to dump salary. Dallas pulled off a move that smart teams make, they were able to have their cake and eat it too. It’s rumored they would have selected Lively at #10 if no trade partner appeared, so they got their guy either way. In addition, Dallas sending out Bertans’ contract with no salary in return created a roughly $17 million Traded Player Exception (TPE), which is a transactional tool to allow teams over the salary cap to acquire a player from another team without sending out salary of their own (more on this later.) There’s also the aspect of people being upset that Dallas passed on forward Cam Whitmore out of Villanova with the pick at 10 or 12, but this is a moot point since Whitmore fell completely out of the lottery and eventually selected at #20 by the Houston Rockets. Whitmore was very high on a majority of draft boards and a consensus top-9 pick up until this week, when it was rumored he could fall in the draft due to questionable medical reports and murmurs about a negative work ethic. If Whitmore went directly after the Mavericks selected, I might also be questioning their decision to pass on him. But in this case, they made the correct decision, and the safe decision.
Holmes Finds a New Home
Soon after Dallas pulled off their trade back & Lively selection at 12, Shams Charania of the Athletic reported that Dallas was actively trying to use their newly acquired TPE to absorb a veteran contract with a draft pick in return. As soon as I saw this report on Twitter, I immediately looked at all NBA player contracts for 2023-2024 under $17 million to see who Dallas could acquire in this kind of scenario. My eyes landed on Richaun Holmes from the Sacramento Kings, the 29-year old big man who fell out of the Kings’ rotation last season. Many in MFFL Nation have been calling for Dallas to acquire Holmes from Sacramento for 3 years now, and Dallas finally answered the call. Dallas took on Holmes’ remaining 2 years and roughly $25 million in salary along with the #24 pick in this years’ draft from the Kings. Sacramento wanted to clear salary, just like Dallas did with the previous trade with OKC, and Dallas accomplished what they set out to do as soon as they made the OKC trade. With the 24th pick, Dallas selected athletic forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper out of Marquette, who has been donned the nickname, OMax. Prosper stands at 6’8 with a 7’1 wingspan and is a certified defensive threat. Dallas basically turned the 10th overall pick into their big man of the future, an athletic wing who could become a starter within a few years, swapped out an unplayable player in Bertans with a backup big man in Holmes, and saved $5 million in salary to get further below the first tax apron. This is what I am talking about, MAXIMIZATION.
The Outlook
Dallas now has 5 players under 25 on their roster who will be in their top 10 rotation in 2023. They have 4 players on rookie contracts. They accomplished all of this without trading away any of their major trade assets. I am most interested to see what these moves mean for the futures of Tim Hardaway Jr., Reggie Bullock & JaVale McGee. I see them as the 3 most likely trade candidates. The options Dallas has now after the draft are more plentiful than before. They can go the shed salary route to ensure their usage of the full MLE. They can package together multiple smaller contracts to bring in a larger salary who can fill a starting role. They can make a couple of fringe moves and run out there the current roster they have now. I am also operating under the impression that Kyrie Irving will re-sign with Dallas in the next couple of weeks. If he were to not, then that opens up an entire new set of pathways they could go down. Dallas HAD to maximize the value of the 10th overall pick, and they did just that. These next couple of weeks could offer more franchise-altering shakeups that would meet the criteria of the overhaul that Dallas management promised going into the off-season. Let’s all take a breath, relax for a moment, and gear up for a wild 2 weeks ahead.