Reclassification of Marvin Bagley III Could Be Huge For Dallas

If high school phenom Marvin Bagley reclassifies, it could be big news for teams in the lottery…such as the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks finished with 33 wins last year and the ninth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. They selected Dennis Smith Jr. out of N.C. State and by the small sample of Summer League, looks to be a star in the league.

But that’s pretty much the only addition to the 33 win Mavs.

After Nerlens Noel is signed, Dallas will have a young core in place around Dirk Nowitzki in his last years. Mavs fans have reasons to be excited, but the playoffs don’t look like one of those reasons this year.

Thus making the 2018 draft class something of intrigue for the Mavericks.

Although the class isn’t as deep as the previous 2017 class, it is quite loaded at the top of the class.

Michael Porter Jr., DeAndre Ayton, and Luka Doncic are regarded by many as the top prospects coming out, but there could be a name to pass them all up really soon.

"“Marvin Bagley III, the top-rated prospect in the Class of 2018, is exploring the possibility of reclassifying and enrolling in time to play college basketball this season, a source confirmed to CBS Sports on Friday.” –Gary Parrish of CBS"

*I believe Parrish meant Class of 2019.

This would be HUGE for any team looking to be drafting high next year.

Bagley is an 18-year-old junior in high school that is regarded by many as the best high school player in the country. He is 6’11” tall with a 7’0″ wingspan according to DraftExpress. He is clearly the best prospect of the 2019 class ahead of players like Zion Williamson and Bol Bol.

In the same article at CBS, Parrish says that “additionally, Bagley would immediately move to the top of most 2018 NBA mock drafts — ahead of Michael Porter Jr., DeAndre Ayton and everybody else.”

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Porter Jr. and Doncic are regarded as potential superstars by many people in the scouting circuit. So for Parrish to acknowledge that most people would vault Bagley over the two means that this coming draft class would only be even more stacked at the top.

When considering the conferences and how teams look on paper at the moment, Dallas could very well have another top ten pick with the potential of it being higher than nine.

If Dallas did land a top two pick in the draft, landing Bagley would be huge for Dallas’ current rebuild and young core. But even if they don’t land at the top, the addition of Bagley naturally pushes back some other top prospects down a few spots in the draft.

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The stronger the 2018 draft class gets, the better it looks for the Dallas Mavericks as it looks like another top ten draft pick is in store for next year.