Haunting Mavericks draft pick has only gotten worse with age

Comparing the Dallas Mavericks to where they were following the Covid-19 pandemic to now, the team has obviously undergone drastic changes, as nobody thought the Mavericks would trade Luka Doncic before he fully hit his prime back in 2020. The Mavericks were under a completely different management, coaching staff, and owner back then as well, as it's clear Dallas was far more risk-averse when it came to making transactions back then.

One of ex-Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson's final transactions during his tenure in Dallas was selecting Josh Green 18th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, and while Green was lauded as a stellar selection back then, the Mavericks likely regret the fact that the old regime took Green considering the limited amount of first-round draft picks Dallas is projected to have this decade.

When a team is in the business of trading future assets to win, the draft picks they do retain become ever more important, so the Mavericks can't afford to miss on first-round draft picks time after time, as this has been the case with both Green and probably Olivier-Maxence Prosper as well.

Mavericks whiffed the 18th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft by selecting Green

Drafting Green 18th overall following the NBA bubble was definitely the more burdensome of those two moves for the Mavericks, though, as Dallas has completely moved on from Green via trade already, and there were some extremely talented players that ended up going shortly after Green in that draft.

Just at the end of the 2020 first round, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Dallas-area native Tyrese Maxey with the 21st pick. Immanuel Quickley and Payton Pritchard were drafted back-to-back at picks 25 and 26, Jaden McDaniels was selected 28th overall, and another Dallas-area native in Desmond Bane, was taken with the last pick in the first round.

In revisionist history, the Mavericks and every other team were in a tough position heading into that draft, considering some of the restrictions that were placed upon teams in their pre-draft process because of the pandemic. Dallas can certainly get some grace for that, but considering just how lofty the talent pool was at the end of the 2020 first round, the Mavericks whiffed particularly hard by drafting Green.

The draft can be a crapshoot to a certain extent, but it's atypical for there to be that many high-end role players and even All-Stars at that juncture in the draft, and Dallas was in a prime position to bring one in, considering they were selecting right outside the lottery. Even if Green did have his moments where he flashed the potential fans were looking for out of him in Dallas, he doesn't compare to a lot of those aforementioned names.

The Mavericks weren't really in the position of trying to find a shot creator/playmaker at that point in time, but it's certainly something that is coming back to bite them in the current day in age, as adding someone like Maxey or Bane to Dallas' current roster would make the Mavericks bonafide contenders, even if Kyrie Irving missed the entirety of next season.

Even Quickley or Pritchard would give Mavericks fans far more assurance over the guard rotation heading into next season; meanwhile, Green is coming off a so-so season with the Charlotte Hornets. Green was shipped out in the Klay Thompson sign-and-trade, so it's fair to say Dallas' current regime at least somewhat extracted some value from him, but it would've been far more ideal if Dallas had fully hit on Green or another player.