Seeking an immediate impact player, Dallas signals total flexibility with the ninth overall pick as the new front office weighs moving across the board to reshape the roster.
DALLAS - At one point, the Dallas Mavs' new front office talked of using the No. 9 overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft to acquire a "rotational piece.''
A few days later came a quote that upgraded that goal to being about a search for an "impact player.''
And now? We've covered all the bases with a new report that suggests that Dallas is willing to trade the No. 9 pick.
To where?
They'll trade up. They'll trade down. Ask 'em ... and they'll surely inform you that they're willing to trade sideways.
With new team president Masai Ujiri taking over, "open-mindedness'' is clearly in play, and it's being reported that the Mavericks are open to a trade to move up or back in the NBA Draft.
The note comes from Jake Fischer via our reliable pals at The Stein Line.
“Sources say that the Mavericks, however, have told rival teams that they are very much open for trades in either direction with their No. 9 pick,” Fischer reports.
To some degree, this position from the Mavs is one of those "The Sound and The Fury'' things. As Shakespeare wrote it in "Macbeth'' ...
"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
No, no, I'm not calling the reporter an "idiot.'' It's the other part: The Sound and The Fury and The Nothing.''
Because in the end, yes, once we get to June 23 Draft Day, Dallas should consider trading up, if pick No. 9 is best utilized that way.
And yes, the same goes for trading down from No. 9.
And - by now, you get our drift, right? - if Dallas is sitting there at No. 9 and finds that "rotational piece'' or even that "impact player'' falling into its laps?
If that's Arizona guard Brayden Burries or Alabama guard Labaron Philon or Louisville guard Mikel Brown or Baylor guard Cameron Carr or Houston guard Kingston Flemings or a handful of other candidates?
Then Dallas doesn't move up. Or down.
This is an extremely busy time for the organization following its decision to part ways with head coach Jason Kidd and many folks involved in scouting; as we write this, the Mavs don't even have a new head coach.
But there is one decision that is easy to make: And that decision is about being open-minded about the possibilities with pick No. 9.
