As Dallas weighs Arizona star Brayden Burries at No. 9, coach Dusty May highlights the physical guard’s elite maturity and poise that could perfectly complement Cooper Flagg.
DALLAS - It's NBA Draft Day, a time at which we can move from what "the experts'' think about a prospect to what the actual teams think.
One of those prospects under a microscope tonight?
The player in question here - and the player on the Dallas Mavs' draft radar here - is Brayden Burries.
There are those who question the "ceiling'' of this NBA Draft prospect, who is 20 years old and who just finished his freshman year ... and as I have often suggested, when we do this, maybe we are guilty of "paralysis via overanalysis.''
Burries experienced a breakout freshman season with the Wildcats, leading Arizona to the Final Four as their primary scorer. He averaged 16.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three.
He was a first-team All-Big 12 selection and one of the more consistent performers in a loaded freshman class.
Should I say it again? At age 20, he was the star of a Final Four team and a first-team all-conference honoree.
The scouting report on him overall?
He plays with a physical, attacking style. That's good.
But, it is said, he does so without being able to "rely on elite athleticism.'' That sounds ... not good.
Are the concerns about a 6-foot-4 scorer without elite athleticism worthy of being debated?
Maybe, but here's where we shift gears from "what we think'' to the thoughts of somebody who actually matters.
What does new Mavs coach Dusty May - poached this week from the University of Michigan - think about this draft class, and about Burries in particular?
Burries is one of the guys projected to be available in the range of when Dallas picks at No. 9. (That's also true of a pair of Michigan stars, Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara.)
So, what's the word on May's thoughts on Burries?
“When you look at Burries and Koa Peat,'' May said during the season when evaluating the Arizona roster, "I think both of those guys have multi-year national team experience with Team USA. I think that experience allows those guys to be much more advanced than the typical high school player. Some guys are older, some guys are younger, but those guys, I guess DNA factors into it. Those guys don't look like freshmen.”
Make no mistake, tonight's Mavs moves will be dictated by new team president Masai Ujiri, not by a college coach who will have been in town for less than 48 hours.
And also know that a driving force here will be about how the new addition can he play in a way that benefits young Dallas star Cooper Flagg?
Burries can be that guy, and his willingness to operate off the ball makes him a natural complement to a player who touches it as much as Flagg.
What's his "ceiling''? What's his "upside''? Factor that in, sure.
But let's don't overdo it. If Brayden Burries is a player worth a top-nine pick, and if he's deemed a Flagg fit? Oh, and if Ujiri and May are on the same page in their evalution of him?
That's analysis enough for me.
