Dallas Mavericks: A look back at NBA Draft history before 2018

After their second poor season in a row, the Dallas Mavericks have another top-10 pick. Here is a brief draft history of the Mavericks’ drafts prior to 2018.

In the 2018 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks will have three picks. They will have the fifth pick, which is their highest since 1994, when they picked Jason Kidd second overall. They will also have two second round picks: No. 33 and No. 54, which comes from the Portland Trail Blazers, via the Denver Nuggets.

They originally had the 34th pick in the draft but moved up the draft order in the second round to 33rd after the Atlanta Hawks moved past them in the draft lottery. Lets hope for the Mavericks’ sake that they can get a quality player with this 33rd pick. This may make up for the slip down the draft order from third to fifth thanks to the draft lottery.

This is only the second time in the last 20 years that the Mavericks picked inside the top 10. The other time was last year, when they picked up Dennis Smith Jr. at No. 9. This pick is a good one for the Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki was taken with the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. The Mavericks traded the sixth pick, Robert Traylor, for the German superstar.

Last man standing

In the last 20 years, the Dallas Mavericks have drafted 34 players. Of these players, they only have one currently playing on the team. That’s right, the ninth pick of last year’s draft, Dennis Smith Jr., is the only player the Mavericks have drafted who is still on the roster.

In fact, of the 10 players drafted since 2011, only five are still playing in the league. Tyler Zeller (No. 17), who was traded the day after he was drafted in 2011, has had a decent career so far. He has been a solid rebounding bench piece for four teams in his six seasons.

Mike Muscala was taken with the 44th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. In a recurring theme, Muscala was traded on draft night to the Atlanta Hawks. Likewise, Kelly Olynyk, who was taken with the 13th pick in the same draft, was traded on the night as well.

Justin Anderson was taken with the 21st pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Anderson would actually play a season and a half for the Mavericks before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Nerlens Noel deal.

The issue has been twofold for the Mavericks. Firstly, they have been too good to get a lottery pick. While this is not a bad position to be in, it leaves them in the middle of the draft, where the talent levels are lower.

Secondly, up until the 2017-18 season, the Mavericks had been trying to build everything around Nowitzki. This was a fine strategy when he was in his prime, but now that he is on the decline, the Mavericks need to rebuild.

The history by the numbers

The Dallas Mavericks have never had pick No. 5 in the NBA Draft. They have had the fourth pick four times and the sixth pick twice.

Throughout NBA history, there have been a large number of success players taken with the fifth overall pick. Prior to 1980, the most successful picks were Guy Rodgers (1958), Jack Marin (1966), Walt Frazier (1967), Kermit Washington (1973), Darryl Dawkins (1975), Walter Davis (1977), Purvis Short (1978) and Sidney Moncrief (1979).

The glory period of the No. 5 pick in the draft was the 1980s. Some of the greatest players of all time came out of this era. Some of the players taken there were Charles Barkley (1984), Scottie Pippen (1987) and Mitch Richmond (1988).