Mavs 'Active' in Trade Talks After Drafting Dereck Lively II; What's Next?

After making a trade in the first-round of the NBA draft, the Mavericks may not be done wheeling and dealing.

The Dallas Mavericks are making some moves, ladies and gentlemen, and the much-anticipated NBA offseason is just getting started.

After trading the No. 10 pick and Davis Bertans to the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 12 pick, which was used to draft Duke center Dereck Lively II and a $17 million dollar trade exception, the Mavericks may not be done making deals on draft night.

Reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania, the Mavs are 'active in the trade marketplace' as Dallas looks to utilize the trade exception it received from the Thunder to acquire a player and a draft pick, whether for tonight or a future draft. 

The Mavericks are active in the trade marketplace to use their new $17M exception to acquire a player and a current/future pick, sources said.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2023

Dallas' hope in this draft was always to acquire a defensive anchor in the middle and they may have done that for their foreseeable future with Lively, but acquiring a trade exception of $17 million gives Mavs GM Nico Harrison a valuable asset to continue restructuring this roster around Luka Doncic. 

This offseason was always slated to be a crucial one for the Mavericks to build not just a playoff team, but a contending roster around Doncic. With the moves made tonight by Harrison and company, landing a rim protector in Lively along with parting with the remaining two-year, $32 million on Bertans' contract, Dallas is off to a hot start to this summer.

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