Should Mavs Trade 10th Pick in NBA Draft for Pacers' Myles Turner?
Although the Dallas Mavericks front office hoped for a jump in Tuesday's NBA Lottery drawing, their pick in the upcoming draft stayed at No. 10. Given that the pick was top-10 protected, though, the Mavs will take what they can get, and GM Nico Harrison told DallasBasketball.com how 'relieved' he was when the draft order was revealed.
"[I was] relieved once it got to the 11th pick and I knew we at least would get the 10th pick," Harrison told DallasBasketball.com's Grant Afseth before also adding his thoughts on the Mavs potentially trading their pick on draft night instead of using it on a young prospect.
"I was going to ask you to give me the trade speculation, so maybe I [can] add it to my board," said Harrison, who is surely familiar with DallasBasketball.com's ability to keep up with all trade rumors and speculation related to the Mavs. "I don't know anything about the trade rumors. We got to look at every possible scenario, so we'll do that for sure."
If the Mavs do end up trading their pick, one realistic scenario might be to trade for Indiana Pacers big man Myles Turner, who is set to make a combined $40 million over the next two seasons. The DFW native just turned 27 years old, and in 62 games for the Pacers this season, he averaged 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 54.8 percent from the field – all career-highs. He also shot 37.3 percent on 4.0 attempts from 3-point range and averaged 2.3 blocks per game, which was tied for fourth-best in the league.
Turner has been connected to the Mavs in trade rumors for a number of years now, and although fresh rumors have yet to surface, it wouldn't surprise us if they did at some point between now and draft day on June 22. If that becomes the case, what kind of trade package would work for both teams? Here's what we had in mind:
Mavs receive: Myles Turner
Pacers receive: Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock, 2023 first-round pick (after the selection is made)
The initial draw-up of this trade also featured Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dallas' 2027 first-round pick going to Indiana for Buddy Hield as well. However, given that the Mavs would be giving up three rotation players as well as their remaining draft capital for the foreseeable future in that scenario, we figured that one is probably off the table.
Although Turner is coming off a career-best season, he has a lengthy injury history that must be taken into consideration by any team thinking about trading for him. A top-10 pick in this year's draft might not be enough to make the Pacers part ways with Turner, but even if it was, the Mavs would be taking a risk by doing that deal.
As good as Turner can be, is he the player the Mavs should trade the No. 10 pick for? Would they be better off trying to trade back into the mid-to-late first round in order to select a big-man prospect like Duke's Dereck Lively II? We discuss all of this and more on today's episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast:
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