Nico Harrison's draft fumbles have created a problem for the Mavericks

The NBA Draft is a crapshoot. No one gets it 100 percent right. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison has a few success stories on the roster — Dereck Lively II was a smash-hit of a pick, and Cooper Flagg is obviously a win (albeit, the most obvious pick in a long time). But right now, two draft misses are creating a bit of a roster crunch. Olivier-Maxence Prosper, the 24th pick in the 2023 draft, and Jaden Hardy, the 37th pick in 2022, are both candidates to be moved in the coming days. Hardy could be traded, and Prosper's contract could be waived and stretched, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. That means, in short, the Mavs would cut him and spread his salary over multiple years so it has less impact on the team's cap sheet each year.

This is not how Harrison or Mavs fans envisioned the careers of either player going. Prosper was a first-round pick because watching him play stirs daydreams of a 6-foot-8, two-way wing. Basically, the Mavs gambled on him turning into OG Anunoby. But O-Max has struggled to crack the rotation in two years with the Mavs, averaging just 3.5 points per game, and now his time with the team may be over after 92 games.

Hardy, meanwhile, is an odd case. I don't believe that second-round picks can be "busts," and when Hardy signed a three-year extension last offseason, he actually looked like a draft success story for Harrison. A 38 percent career 3-point shooter, it seems clear that Hardy has a place in this league, but his development was a little stagnant in year three, and with Dante Exum and D'Angelo Russell now in the picture, there might not be space for Hardy in the Mavs backcourt — leading to a potential trade.

So while Harrison might actually deserve credit for the pick originally, he immediately gave up that goodwill by extending a player he pretty quickly turned around and looked to deal, likely for some future second-rounders.

Mavs roster is made up mostly of trade additions and free agents

The 2025-26 Dallas Mavericks are made up, in large part, of players the Mavs didn't draft. Flagg and Lively could end up being the only two players on next season's roster who started their NBA careers with the team.

That's not inherently a bad thing, especially with how much movement we see in the NBA. But with Prosper and Hardy both likely playing elsewhere next year, the Mavs front office is running low on examples to point to as draft successes. Again, being gifted Cooper Flagg does compensate for a lot of that, but the team obviously can't rely on lottery luck every year. Eventually, Harrison will have to surround Flagg with homegrown prospects, and admitting defeat on both of these guys isn't a great sign that he'll be able to.