Mavericks' top picks often fizzled, but these five sizzled

Coming up with the all-time best first draft picks in Dallas Mavericks' history is shockingly easy to do.

Oh, you might quibble with the order of the top five, or how exactly to decipher a player's career achievements versus what they did in a Mavs' uniform. But after going over every top pick since the franchise took root in 1980, one thing is clear, the five stand out clearly.

And five is about where the list ends. There were no hard choices to make.

The NBA draft begins at 6 p.m. Thursday from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Dallas has the No. 5 overall pick. A year ago they scored big time with the No. 9 overall pick and need to do it again to turn the franchise around. There have been some very good players taken first by the Mavs, but often they excelled elsewhere.

Here are the Mavs' all-time five best first picks in the NBA draft:

5. Detlef Schrempf, 1985 (No. 8 overall)

4. Sam Perkins, 1984 (No. 4 overall)

3. Dennis Smith, 2017 (No. 9 overall)

2. Jason Kidd, 1994 (No. 2 overall)

1. Mark Aguirre, 1981 (No. 1 overall)

Best of the rest: Jamal Mashburn (No. 4 in 1993); Jim Jackson (No. 4 in 1992); Roy Tarpley (No. 7 in 1986); Dale Ellis (No. 9 in 1983); Kiki Vandeweghe (No. 11 in 1980).

This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 5:54 AM with the headline "Mavericks' top picks often fizzled, but these five sizzled."