The Mavericks were expected to keep the ninth pick in the 2025 NBA draft and take whoever slid to them. That was the cleanest read of draft day: hold nine, keep the board flexible, and let the value come to Dallas.
At the same time, the 30th pick sat in play as a possible trade-up piece. The writer said there would be good players left there and expected a cluster of names to go between picks 20 and 25, which is why the late first-round slot carried more movement than the top-10 selection.
Mavericks at nine
The simplest part of the draft plan was the hardest to ignore. Dallas had nine, and the expectation was to keep it rather than chase a move that would cost the team its best draft position. That left the Mavericks in position to wait for the board to break in their favor instead of forcing a choice early.
The hope was for a guard to fall. One name sat at the center of that idea: Mikel Brown. The writer put it plainly with the line, “If Mikel Brown falls, I promise I won’t ask anything of the basketball gods for at least a year.”
Dallas and the 30th pick
The 30th pick created the wrinkle. The writer wanted the front office to get creative there, not sit still, and use that slot as the kind of asset that can help move up. That is the tension inside Dallas’ draft night: one pick seems likely to stay put, while the other invites a swing.
There was a reason to keep one eye on the late first round. The expectation was that a lot of players would come off the board between 20 and 25, and that made 30 a spot where value could still exist, even if the preferred target did not make it all the way down.
Splash Sports and the draft board
The draft discussion was also tied to a new game from Splash Sports called NBA Draft Predictor. Splash Sports offered cash prizes for the game, and sign-ups with the code MAVS came with $20 in QuickPicks vouchers plus a 100% boost on Splash’s DFS game.
That package turned the draft into more than a list of picks. It gave Dallas fans a reason to follow every slide and every trade read closely, because the real question was not just who the Mavericks would take at nine. It was whether the 30th pick would stay in place long enough to matter, or be used to push the team closer to a better name on the board.
