Mavs Will 'Almost Certainly' Trade No. 10 Pick; Dallas Prefers to Keep Josh Green, Jaden Hardy

Despite having a top-10 pick in one of the deepest drafts in recent memory, the Dallas Mavericks aren't expected to keep that No. 10 pick. However, they do want to hold onto Josh Green and Jaden Hardy.

Kyrie Irving reportedly recruiting Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James to the Dallas Mavericks has dominated the NBA news cycle over the last 24 hours. But before such a pipe-dream trade scenario has a shot of happening, the Mavs must figure out what they’re going to do with the No. 10 pick in the NBA Draft, which gets underway on June 22.

Despite the Mavs having a lottery pick in a draft class that is one of the deeper ones we’ve seen in recent memory, there have been reports stating Dallas could look to trade it instead of adding a top young prospect. The Athletic’s Tim Cato is the latest to reinforce that idea.

“The team’s summer rebuild must begin with players like Hardaway and Bertans being shipped out to make room for further moves, and why the No. 10 pick is almost certainly going to be dealt — quite possibly with Bertans’ contract attached to it — while the team prefers keeping Green and Hardy, two players on rookie-scale contracts who can provide rotation minutes next season,” Cato wrote.

There’s nothing wrong with the Mavs trying to find a way to salary-dump Davis Bertans’ contract, but given the quality of this year’s draft prospects, is dumping said contract worth throwing away a top-10 pick? The Mavs already have a limited collection of young prospects and future draft capital, so we’d have to say that’s probably not a great route for owner Mark Cuban to take.

Now, if a significant opportunity arises where the Mavs are able to add another win-now piece alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, then a decent case could be made for trading the No. 10 pick. Perhaps a LeBron James trade scenario will pick up steam at some point, or more realistically, maybe the Phoenix Suns will look to dump the former 2018 No. 1 overall pick, Deandre Ayton, for a discounted price.

But moving the pick just to shed salary? That likely wouldn’t be the right move to make for a team that wasn’t even able to make the Play-In Tournament this season. And it certainly wouldn’t be a signal to Doncic and Irving that winning is the top priority.

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