The Dallas Mavericks upgraded the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to the No. 2 pick from that draft.
Upgrade, right?
Well, no. Luka Doncic was the third pick. Marvin Bagley was the second pick.
Doncic got sent away for Anthony Davis a year ago. And now, in the AD trade to the Wizards, one of the guys coming back was Bagley.
Bagley may not stay around for long, though.
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The Athletic’s John Hollinger listed Bagley sixth in his “buyout tiers” after the trade deadline.
That doesn’t mean Hollinger thinks Bagley is sixth-most likely to be bought out. Rather, Hollinger ranks him the sixth-best player with a chance to get bought out.
“Dallas no longer has the third pick from the 2018 draft, but look on the bright side: It has the second pick from the same draft,” Hollinger writes. “That’s better, right? Bagley was pretty effective in Washington, but Dallas has a lot of frontcourt bodies and shouldn’t really be trying to win the rest of the way.”
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That last sentence is the key part. The only incentives remaining for this season for the Mavs are to allow Cooper Flagg to shine, and to get a good draft position.
Bagley might be just a bit too good to play solid minutes the rest of the way.
If he’s waived, another team will surely snag him. Bagley has never lived up to the hype, but he’s good enough to help a contender down the stretch.
