The Smoking Cuban
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Dallas Mavericks: Be Ready for an Entertaining NBA Draft

By Kohl Rast

CHICAGO, IL - MAY 15: NBA Draft Prospect, Deandre Ayton poses for a portrait during the 2018 NBA Combine circuit on May 15, 2018 at the Intercontinental Hotel Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - MAY 15: NBA Draft Prospect, Deandre Ayton poses for a portrait during the 2018 NBA Combine circuit on May 15, 2018 at the Intercontinental Hotel Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The 2018 NBA Draft is still more than three weeks away and the obsession is at an all time high. With rumors of trades up and down, players moving around draft boards almost daily, and only a handful of teams keeping their silence. This is the most important draft for the Dallas Mavericks since 1998. Naturally it would be shrouded in mystery.

The craziness of this pre-NBA Draft has been pretty incredible. In most drafts throughout history, there has been a frontrunner on who everyone thought would be selected first overall. After that, the rest of the draft was up for grabs but there was a general idea of who was going to be taken.

Take, for example, last season when Markelle Fultz was the undisputed first overall pick by the Celtics and then the 76ers. There was really no question that he was going to be picked first and that Lonzo Ball was going to be second. After that there was more variability, but those picks were not in question.

This year, the first overall pick is widely disputed. Although the frontrunners are definitely DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncic, no one really knows which one the Suns might pick. There are also those who still believe that Marvin Bagley III could make an argument for the top pick.

After that, there is so much variety of picks that you can find mock drafts that have any of Doncic, Ayton, Bagley, Mo Bamba, Michael Porter Jr, and Jaren Jackson Jr. being selected with the second pick. Others like Trae Young have also been discussed in the top 3-5 range. And that variety does not slow down going further into the draft.

The Dallas Mavericks have the 5th pick. So far on Twitter, I have seen that there is no way that Luka Doncic, DeAndre Ayton, Jaren Jackson Jr., or Marvin Bagley III will fall to the Mavs at 5. Others believe that Bamba, Porter and Young could all get taken ahead of Dallas as well. That means that there are 7 different players who should be gone by the time the Mavs pick…

Then there are the trade rumors. Pretty much every team has been rumored to be involved in some sort of trade talks involving their picks in some way or another. Be it Memphis, Cleveland, Philly, Denver, or even Chicago, lots of people believe that there will be some serious trades going on one way or another.

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The point is that it is pretty much impossible to predict what will happen this coming draft. So much is up in the air and so much relies on information we don’t know yet that whatever you think might happen, it probably won’t. And that makes this time even more exciting.