Mavs hoping to get really lucky and get the No. 1 overall pick in the draft

DALLAS – With their eyes squarely on getting younger, the Dallas Mavericks already know they’re going to at least receive a Top 10 pick in the June 22 NBA Draft for the first time since 1998.

Overall, the Mavs have a 2.2 percent chance of winning the May 16 NBA Draft lottery and landing the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. And they have a 7.9 percent chance of receiving one of the top three picks.

In what experts say is a very deep draft, the Mavs are poised to draft a player who could ;possibly be in their regular rotation as soon as next season. Especially since their best odds is that they’ll wind up with the No. 9 pick in the draft.

"I’ve already looked at the Top 15 prospects," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It’s a great draft, there’s great opportunity there.

"I don’t know which player, obviously, at this point we’re going to draft. But we’re going to get a good player. I’m really excited about it."

A point guard or power forward is certainly a high priority for the Mavs, who missed the playoffs this year for just the second time in the last 17 seasons. But they may just take who they deem to be the best player on the board when it’s their time to draft.

"Nobody’s going to give you a straight answer on that this time of year," Carlisle said. "If you look at our roster, we do have certain needs, but at the same time if there is a player that can really be a star, there’s an awful lot of merit in just taking him and figuring it out from there.

"Between now and late June, we’ll collect a lot of information. We’ll interview guys, we’ll have workouts, we’ll figure out as much as we need to figure out and make the decision."

By the way, the only time the Mavs had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft in their 37-year history was in 1981 when they chose forward Mark Aguirre over poin guard Isiah Thomas, who was drafted No. 2 overall by the Detroit Pistons. Ironically, the Mavs traded Aguirre to Detroit on Feb. 15, 1989, and he and Thomas won NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Mavs hoping to get really lucky and get the No. 1 overall pick in the draft."