Before last season’s NBA trade deadline, the Mavericks sent three draft picks, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith to Brooklyn in exchange for Kyrie Irving.
At this year’s trade deadline on Thursday, February 8, Dallas sent their only available first-round pick, along with Seth Curry and Grant Williams, to the Charlotte Hornets for P.J. Washington and two second-round picks.
This move, and another to acquire Daniel Gafford from the Washington Wizards, were meant to boost the Mavericks’ chances of making the playoffs behind Irving and Luka Doncic after missing the playoffs in 2023. It worked out pretty well, with Dallas winning the Western Conference before losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
All Dallas could offer was a 2027 first-round pick. NBA rules prohibit trading consecutive first-round picks, so the Mavericks were obligated to pay the Knicks a first-round pick in 2024 or 2025 in the Kristaps Porzingis trade at the time (which officially became a 2024 first-round pick in April) and Brooklyn was obligated to receive a first-round pick in 2029 in the Irving trade.
This year’s draft will be held over two days for the first time, with the first round taking place on Wednesday, June 26 at Barclays Center and the second round on June 27 at ESPN studios in lower Manhattan.
Here’s a breakdown of the Mavericks’ draft picks (or lack thereof) from this season through 2030.
2024
1st round: None. Five years after the Porzingis trade in January 2019 and a revamped front office, the Mavericks finally acquired their second and final first-round pick to pay off their debt to the New York Knicks.
Round 2: 1 (58th overall). The Mavericks got back a second-round pick in a trade with Washington. Their original second-round picks this year and 2028 will go to the Sacramento Kings in a 2022 trade they made to get back a second-round pick and select Jaden Hardy.
2025
1st round: One.
Round 2: Number two. The second one is via a trade with Washington.
2026
Round 1: One.
Round 2: None. The Mavericks will give the second-round pick to the Thunder as a cap payment for the James Johnson trade in November 2020. Oklahoma City could then move that pick to Miami or Houston, depending on their draft position and the terms of any recent trades.
Also of note this offseason is that Luka Doncic’s rookie supermax contract extension includes a player option for the final year of his contract in the 2026-27 offseason, meaning he could hit the free agent market as early as the summer of 2026.
Doncic will become a free agent in the summer of 2027 unless he signs another contract extension or chooses to waive the player option on his current contract for the 2026-27 season.
2027
Round 1: None. The Mavericks traded the pick to Charlotte before the 2024 trade deadline.
Round 2: None. Dallas’ 2027 second-round pick was used in the trade for Kyrie Irving.
2028
1st round: One.
Round 2: None. The pick goes to Sacramento to complete Hardy’s contract for 2022.
2029
Round 1: none.
Round 2: None. The Mavericks sent a 2029 first- and second-round pick, plus Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and the aforementioned 2027 second-round pick, to Brooklyn in exchange for Irving.
The NBA does not allow teams to trade draft picks more than seven years in the future.
2030
Round 1: One.
Round 2: One.
By the time of the 2030 draft, Doncic will be 31 and in his 11th year of his NBA career. Under the NBA’s current collective bargaining rules, the youngest draft prospect would have to be 19 in 2030 and be born within a few months of the Mavericks winning the championship in 2011.
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