Do Mavs Have 'Most to Gain' From Moving Up in NBA Draft Lottery?

With the NBA Draft Lottery taking place on Tuesday, the future of the Dallas Mavericks could either take a huge leap or face a heartbreaking reality.

Michael Mulford | May 13, 2023

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"Can you imagine, dude? Oh my goodness. What do you do?," asked The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor shared his sentiments on the idea of the Dallas Mavericks potentially pairing Luka Doncic with the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft, Victor Wembanyama.

On Wednesday's episode of "The Ringer's NBA Draft Show," O'Connor and J. Kyle Mann discussed which teams have the most and least to gain in next week's draft lottery, which included the Mavs, who have the 10th-best odds of winning it.

"You already have Luka, one of the best players in all of basketball," O'Connor said. "If they were to slide up to No. 1 and you pair Wemby with Luka, that obviously goes without saying how magical that combination would be with those two guys."

If the Mavs land Wembanyama to pair with Doncic, the league should be on full notice for at least the next decade. But, what if the Mavs move up but don't land at No. 1? Still, Dallas would be one of the biggest immediate beneficiaries with adding a young talent in the likes of Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, and Amen Thompson or having a top-4 pick in their arsenal to trade for a win-now piece.

"If they were to move up, they're a team that suddenly could really propel themselves back into that upper class in the Western Conference that they have so quickly fallen out of," O'Connor said.

"It'd be a better version of what we imagined he would be like with Porzingis," Mann said of pairing Doncic with Wembanyama. A better version of the Doncic-KP duo sounds like a dream Mavs fans would want to be a part of.

We'll find out the Mavs' lottery fate on Tuesday in Chicago as GM Nico Harrison is set to represent his team when those envelopes are opened.

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Published May 13, 2023

MICHAEL MULFORD

Michael Mulford is a writer/editor for Dallas Basketball, where he extensively covers the Dallas Mavericks. He also covers the Chicago Bulls as the Managing Editor for Bulls Wire of USA Today Sports Media Group. Mulford grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Event, and Sports Management. He began his pursuit of sports writing in 2017 with Dallas Sports Fanatic, where he covered the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, Texas Legends. He then became the Managing Editor of Dallas Sports Fanatic just one year later and has covered the Mavericks as a credentialed media member since 2018, including covering numerous playoff games between 2021-22 and covering the team at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in 2019. In his time covering the Mavericks, Mulford has conducted numerous interviews for exclusive stories including with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, former Maverick and current VP of Basketball Ops Michael Finley, former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson, and more. You can follow and interact with Mulford on Twitter at @TheMulf.