2026 NBA draft thread

[dirkfansince1998]

I keep hearing the DSJ pick being used as a comp situation, to sell that terrible draftsmanship is likely again, and I don't buy it. 

I do recall in that DSJ draft year there seemed to be a top 6 (out of our range) and then the 2nd tier with DSJ, Ntilikina, Markannen, and Monk being regularly in that spot. We talked about it a lot. But I don't recall we the public having realms of info (lots of gurus, videos, analysis, articles, etc) on the various players, like we do now.

DSJ turned out to be meh. But that certainly wasn't on us (we were only bystanders with opinions). And there's no question that Cuban did not prioritize the draft, with either money, personnel, or approach, so the result was kinda what you get when you are winging it. 

The point being - I think we are in a completely different world with this draft, on about every level. Our fan expertise is way better, just because we see both videos and discussions of all these players from about every angle. And after many years of having a 2nd class draft operation (that in some years was a total laughingstock), the Mavs have hired people who are experts at this.

I am not making the case that terrible draftsmanship is going to haunt the Mavs again. I just mentioned it because a lot of people are all in on the top 4 + top 5 guards consensus. It seems like some posters would consider it a failure if the Mavs don't leave the draft with one of the guards. If they don't end up with one of the consensus guys. 
Case I was trying to make is that the decision makers shouldn't and most likely won't care all that much about the consensus. Hard to imagine that the Mavs have all five guards in the same tier. Possible that they are completly out on one of them (Flemings rumor). Possible that they are much higher on some of the guys in the 10-20 range.

That's why I won't lose my mind if the Mavs trade down or pick someone else at #9.