The NBA Draft is tonight at 6:00 and promises to be interesting in the way teams manuver to position themselves and allow certain players to be picked.
This applies to your Dallas Mavericks, who currently have the 50th pick in the draft after giving up their first-round pick at 27 to the New Jersey Nets (now, ironically, coached by former Mavs coach Avery Johnson) as part of the Jason Kidd trade. The Mavs, along with several other teams, will be looking to wheel and deal in order to move up in what looks like a deep pool of talent to choose from.
If the Mavs are unable to move up, some players to keep an eye on include Latavious Williams, Derrick Caracter, Luke Harangody and Brian Zoubek. Other players worth mentioning include Sylven Landesberg, Mac Koshwal, Nemanja Bjelica, Darington Hobson and Dwayne Collins. In other words, its a total crapshoot at this point and the outcome is far from certain.
It should be noted the Mavs do not have a solid history of drafting players who make a contribution to the franchise in the second round, especially since they possess the 50th over-all pick. In 2007 the Mavs drafted Nick Fazekas, and he played in four games for a total of nine minutes before being waived and is currently out of the league. Before Fazekas, the last second round draft pick to even suit up for the Mavs was Wang Zhizhi, whom Dallas selected in the 1999 draft.
Here are the players the Mavericks have drafted in the second round since 1999:
Wang Zhizhi – 60 games with the Mavs (2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons), played 137 games in NBA career, currenly playing in China
Gordan Giricek – traded to Spurs on draft night for Leon Smith, played 384 games in NBA career, currently playing in Europe
Dan Langhi – traded to Rockets on draft night for Eduardo Najera and 2001 second round draft pick (Kyle Hill), played 133 games in NBA career
Pete Mickeal – traded with Erick Strickland to Knicks for John Wallace and Donnell Harvey, never played an NBA game, currently playing in Europe
Kyle Hill – traded to Rockets on draft night, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Kenny Satterfield – traded to Nuggets for a future second round draft pick, played 75 games in the NBA, curerntly playing in the IBL
Mladen Sekularac – traded to Warriors in 2004, never played a game in the NBA
Xue Yuyang – traded to Nuggets on draft night, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in China
Vassilis Spanoulis – traded to Rockets on draft night for Luis Flores, played 31 games in the NBA,
J.R. Pinnock – traded to Lakers for future second round pick, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Nick Fazekas – 4 games with the Mavs (2007-08), waived by Mavs during 2007-08 season, played 26 games in NBA career, currently playing in Europe
Renaldas Seibutis – cut from 2008 summer league roster, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Milovan Rakovic – traded to Magic on draft night with cash, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Shan Foster – still hold rights, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Ahmad Nivins – still hold rights, never played a game in the NBA, currently playing in Europe
Of these players, six (Wang, Giricek, Langhi, Satterfield, Spanoulis and Fazekas) saw playing time in the NBA and only two of those players (Wang and Fazekas) saw time with the Mavericks. I guess what I am saying is, do not get TOO excited or attached to whomever the Mavs draft at 50. It could be the last time you ever hear about them, let alone see them.
Until summer league at least.
Happy drafting. I will be back with analysis on the Mavs draft night moves.
Info for this post gathered from SportsDayDFW.com, BasketballReference.com, Wikipedia and DraftExpress.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
So Cuban took Dominique Jones. What are your thoughts on this selection. He wasn’t on your list.
Technically, the Mavs drafted Solomon Alabi at 50 (he wasn’t on the list either, go figure) then traded him to the Raptors.
The Mavs bought the 25th pick from Grizzlies for $3 million and Memphis selected Jones for them.
I don’t know what to make of the move, as it would seem to signal that Roddy B is going to be THE point guard of the future since Jones is more of a slasher in the Dwyane Wade mold. That’s not to say he’s Wade 2.0, but if he comes anywhere near that, this could be a good move.
Alabi, while raw, would have provided size up front, something the Mavs are lacking. He only started playing basketball at age 15 and I got a little worried watching the draft and seeing a graphic that said: Must improve: Post game. Don’t we already have a 7-footer that doesn’t have much of a post game?
More to come in a later post…
speaking of 7 footers, what do you make of Gasol? Prior to the finals this year, last time we watched him he was getting muscled in the paint like Dirk.
But he changed.
He is now a solid weapon, both in and out of the paint. How do you compare him to Dirk, and should we now move Dirk based upon Gasol’s growth?
I like the pick and the fact that the Mavs paid straight up cash for it. Not sure whether Dominique is really as good as the Mavs front office is saying, but how awesome would it be to have Roddy B and a hot new shooting guard growing up together to headline the post-Dirk Mavs?
While I agree that a Roddy B/D Jones backcourt has the potential to be pretty good, I would still like to see Roddy play the 2 on occasion and open up some scoring opportunities for him. Hopefully, this can happen since Jones is listed as a “combo guard”. Wonder if they’ll switch things up on the fly out there…