Mavs Warned Against Trading Draft Pick Due to '$100 Million' of Luka Doncic & Kyrie Irving

The Mavs have the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and are often reported as being likely to trade it. A former league executive is cautioning against that approach.

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks face the need to add the necessary pieces around Luka Doncic after finishing with a 38-44 record and failing to even qualify for the play-in tournament. The main asset at the Mavs' disposal is the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

There are a few options the Mavs have at their disposal as far as the 10th pick is concerned. The simplest of the main options would be to simply select a prospect using the selection to add to the team's core to develop long-term. However, the pressure to win immediately when facing an urgent timeline must be considered, too.

During an NBA Draft media conference call, ESPN NBA Draft analysts Bobby Marks and Jonathan Givony answered many questions about a wide-range of topics, including the Mavs' potential use of the 10th pick. 

From an asset management standpoint, Marks — who served as an assistant general manager for the Brooklyn Nets — cautioned the Mavs' use of the 10th pick to quickly engage in an impatient trade. He sees need to add another core young player in addition to develop along with Josh Green and Jaden Hardy. 

“The rules moving forward are just going to be harder to make a trade or maybe even re-sign a player that maybe you acquired in a trade that’s going to cost you 25, 30 million,” Marks said. “Where their roster is [outside of] Green and Hardy, the draft and Dallas aren’t kind of hand-in-hand as of late here. It is important to build that next layer of foundation players here with young talent.”

With the Mavs intending to re-sign Irving for what likely will be a max contract, Marks sees there being an increased need to use the 10th pick to add a cost-controlled contributor to insulate the team from implications of an increasingly restricted Collective Bargaining Agreement in the near future.

“Especially if the intent is to bring back Kyrie [Irving],” Marks said, “there’s a focus with the new rules as far as the draft is a major focus here because of the players that are on rookie contracts with the low salary cost here.

“When you have two players [in Doncic and Irving] who can be making close to $100 million, it’s harder to build your roster outside of your own players. I mean, that’s kind of the message that the league has sent as far as messages to kind of retain your own.”

There has been reporting from numerous NBA insiders suggesting the Mavs are most likely to trade the 10th pick. That's understandable considering the pressure the organization faces to win immediately. However, general manager Nico Harrison pushed back on that notion when asked by DallasBasketball.com after the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago.

"I was going to ask you to give me the trade speculation, so maybe I add it to my board," Harrison told DallasBasketball.com. "I don't know anything about the trade rumors. We got to look at every possible scenario, so we'll do that for sure."

As far as Givony's stance on the Mavs' options with the 10th pick is concerned, he sees there being a real potential for the team to select a prospect that can help them immediately. With how rarely Dallas has selected in the lottery, Givony sees there being a greater appeal to select a prospect than to use it in a trade.

“There are players for them if they want to stay in this draft, [if] they want to keep that pick," Givony explained. "There is a guy there that could help them as soon as next year.”

Givony highlighted Anthony Black and Taylor Hendricks as realistic options that could be available to the Mavs when they're on the clock with the 10th pick. However, he sees Jarace Walker as being a "homerun" prospect to monitor if he was to fall.

"Anthony Black, I think, would be a phenomenal fit on their roster just with the way he defends and how unselfish he is, does so many different things on the floor," Givony said. "I think that he would be a great pairing with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

"They don’t have a lot of size there at that forward spot, and so having a versatile player like Taylor Hendricks who can guard all over the floor, who can make an open three, who plays with great energy, I think they’re missing that right now," Givony explained. "So, he would be a guy that I think that they might want to target.

"So, if Jarace Walker, for whatever reason, fell to them at 10, I mean, that’s a home run pick, I would think, for them. I’m not sure he’s going to be there," Givony explained further. "So, I think that they — there’s players for them if they want to stay in this draft, they want to keep that pick. There’s a guy there that could help them as soon as next year."

The Mavs have plenty of time to evaluate their options ahead of the 2023 NBA Draft on June 22. Whatever ends up being the front office's decision, it will need to be the right one as they are operating with a thin margin for error as far as building around Doncic is concerned. 

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Grant Afseth is a Dallas Mavericks reporter for DallasBasketball.com and an NBA reporter for NBA Analysis Network. He previously covered the Indiana Pacers and NBA for CNHI's Kokomo Tribune and various NBA teams for USA TODAY Sports Media Group. Follow him on Twitter (@grantafseth), Facebook (@grantgafseth), and YouTube (@grantafseth).

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