Mavericks' No. 1 trade target is shaping up to be impossible to land

When Nico Harrison decided to trade Luka Doncic, he completely disregarded the fact that he had mortgaged many of the Dallas Mavericks' future first-round picks elsewhere to build a contender around Doncic, as Dallas doesn't have full control of any of their first-round draft picks until 2031, besides this upcoming draft. Idealistically, the Mavericks could make some trades to get some of these picks back, as was posited in a recent Bleacher Report article, but this won't be easy to do.

In a recently published Bleacher Report article by Dan Favale, Favale went through what every NBA team's top three targets should be this summer, and he listed Dallas getting control of their picks back, as well as Grayson Allen and Cam Spencer as their top three targets.

While getting a great shooter like Allen or Spencer seems fairly attainable via trade this summer, the Mavericks will be hard-pressed to get back any of their first-round picks, as it's pretty uncommon for teams to get their picks back in another deal. Of course, this isn't an impossible feat, but Dallas would have to make an extremely enticing deal to get any of their future first-round picks back, or to get any of their pick swaps amended.

Teams won't just hand Dallas control of their first-rounders again

Technically, the only first-round pick Dallas completely traded away in the Doncic era was the 2027 first-round pick they gave to the Charlotte Hornets in the P.J. Washington trade, but the years after 2027 are complex in terms of the Mavericks not having control of their own first-rounders.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have swap rights for Dallas' 2028 first-round pick, and the Houston Rockets or Brooklyn Nets will receive the more favorable selection of Dallas' 2029 first-round pick, while the San Antonio Spurs or Minnesota Timberwolves will receive the more favorable selection of Dallas' 2030 first-round pick.

What the Mavericks can do to get their picks back

To get swap rights amended or to get their 2027 first-round pick back from Charlotte, the Mavericks would have to give any of these teams some very intriguing assets, and there's no guarantee they'll do business with any of the aforementioned squads over the next few years outside of their desire to get their picks back.

A formula for how this could work would be if the Mavericks traded someone like Daniel Gafford to the Hornets (a team that needs a center), in exchange for a salary-filler and their 2027 first-rounder back, but deals of this nature rarely come into fruition, as teams tend to covet first-rounders they've already accumulated via trade unless they are making a huge deal for a star.

All this being said, the Mavericks' 2026 draft is extremely important, as it's very unlikely they will get a lottery pick for the rest of the decade after this, unless the Los Angeles Lakers are somehow terrible in the 2028-29 season. Getting a chance to select someone at the top of a loaded 2026 draft class will go a long way for Dallas in terms of building around Flagg, but it's undeniable that Nico Harrison handicapped their ability to build through the draft in the forthcoming years after 2026.