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The Dallas Mavericks made the first big move of the 2018 NBA Draft by swapping picks with the Atlanta Hawks in hopes to land their desired prospect in Luka Doncic. Turns out, a top-five protected draft pick was the only cost the Mavs had to pay for moving up two slots in this talent-filled draft, allowing them to draft the EuroLeague MVP with the third overall pick — in retrospect, a very small price to pay for a foundational player, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
The Mavs considered themselves fortunate that the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings passed on Doncic and that the Atlanta Hawks were willing to trade down. (A source told ESPN that Igor Kokoskov, the first-year Suns head coach who won the 2017 EuroBasket title with Slovenia, “loved” Doncic but had minimal input on who Phoenix chose with the No. 1 overall pick.) Dallas considered a top-five-protected pick a small price to pay to move up two spots to take Doncic.
Doncic is looking like the best talent in the draft through a third of the way into the season. The 19-year-old put up a career-high 32 points against the LA Clippers on Thursday night, rounding out a combo platter of a performance with four rebounds, five assists, four steals and three trifectas in a losing yet spectacular effort on the road.
At 6-foot-7 and 218 pounds, Doncic didn't seem uber-athletic nor freakishly gifted with length or size, but president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson had done plenty of overseas scouting to know that talent like Doncic's doesn't come around all that often.
His plea to draft him and his gambit to roll the dice on draft night has evidently paid off, as Luka Doncic looks to be every bit the heralded successor to franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki.
