Mavericks and Kings drafts were a case study in fit versus best available

Both the Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings entered the NBA Draft in similar situations, but ended up going very different directions.

The Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings haven’t gotten a whole lot right the last few years. Both organizations have been rebuilding or retooling for the better part of a decade without much success, and both made aggressive moves during Thursday’s NBA Draft to change that.

Let’s start in Sacramento, where the Kings had the No. 2 pick in the draft and carte blanche to take Luka Doncic — whom many considered the most can’t-miss prospect in the draft. Instead, they nabbed Marvin Bagley III, a power forward/center who won’t take the ball out of the hands of last year’s draft pick De’Aaron Fox. The Kings were hesitant to take Doncic for that reason.

Fox is a slashing point guard who is still developing as a perimeter shooter. Yes, he needs the ball in his hands to be most effective. Yes, having a lob and post threat like Bagley should help his development. And, yes, Fox is considered internally to be a franchise-altering type of player.

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The curious part about the decision is that Sacramento (a) doesn’t have enough talent to start making decisions based on fit alone, (b) the Kings’ biggest need was someone on the wing, and (c) neither Fox nor Doncic are fully formed. Who is to say they can’t play well together at some point?

Still, they went with Bagley, who they loved. Maybe the Kings will be right about Bagley. He projects to contribute right away because of his offensive skill set and ability to rebound, and could very well end up in the running for Rookie of the Year. There are concerns about his defense, but if a guy like Karl-Anthony Towns can still be considered an All-NBA-type player despite the same concerns, there’s hope for Bagley.

At Duke, Bagley didn’t show the same sort of multi-level scoring that KAT provides, but he believes he’s among the most versatile players in the draft.

“I’m just looking forward to showing every aspect of my game,” Bagley told reporters after the draft. “I’m an all-around player and (show) how comfortable I am with the ball, dribbling the ball, handling it, creating for teammates, making the right basketball play, just playing the game.”

If nothing else, the fit between Fox and Bagley is simple, and simple could be what the Kings need. The guard-big pick-and-roll is a simple staple offense that should lead to them winning more games. As far as Bagley’s defensive limitations, it’s not as if the Kings could get much worse on that end (they were 27th in the league in defensive rating last season).

Surround Fox and Bagley with shooters like Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield and the Kings have a an offense built on both horizontal and vertical spacing where everyone has room to grow. Sacramento’s front office has spent a lot of picks on bigs in the past, but none of them have panned out. Plus, I wouldn’t have trusted them to know what to do with a more abstract talent like Doncic — and maybe they didn’t either.

The Dallas Mavericks, on the other hand, were so confident in their ability to utilize Doncic that they traded up in the draft to get him. In many ways, they entered Thursday night in the same situation as Sacramento.

They also selected a slashing, uber-athletic point guard last June in Dennis Smith Jr., and entered the draft with the same needs — shooting and length on the perimeter and an answer at center. Many mock drafts had the Mavericks taking a player who would have seamlessly filled those needs at No. 5 like Michael Porter Jr. or Mo Bamba. Instead, they traded the fifth pick and a future first to the Atlanta Hawks to move up to No. 3, where they took Doncic.

The Mavericks may have gotten the best player in the draft, but head coach Rick Carlisle will have his work cut out for him when it comes to figuring out how to utilize his best players. Both Smith and Doncic are used to having the ball in their hands, and Harrison Barnes ranked as one of the highest-usage players in the league last season. There will be a touch-and-go period as everyone feels out the new dynamic.

Carlisle believes the two will complement each other.

“He’s a great shooter,” Carlisle said of Doncic, after the draft. “So he creates space for other players, which is really going to help Dennis. I think Dennis’ speed and rim-attacking ability is going to complement Doncic’s spacing ability and playmaking ability.”

As the Kings settle into their decision, they’ll be able to watch from afar what the alternative could have looked like. The Mavericks will experiment with Doncic and Smith while hoping neither impedes the other’s development. What we have here is a case study of fit versus best player available.

It makes you wonder what a team further along its developmental curve will do when faced with a similar predicament. The Philadelphia 76ers could have a decision to make this summer between going all in with LeBron James or using their max cap space on someone who fits more seamlessly next to Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, such as Paul George.

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Simmons is more developed than Fox, Smith or Doncic, but there could be the same hesitation on the Sixers’ part about taking the ball out of his hands. Or, if you’re the Sixers, you can trust players like LeBron and Simmons (and a head coach like Brett Brown) to figure it out. To grow and develop their own games to mesh better with the other’s.

Philadelphia has yet to make its decision. Sacramento and Dallas have made theirs. What happens next will be less about draft board and cap sheet maneuvering, and more about execution. In the debate between fit versus best player available, the Kings and Mavericks will be situations to monitor. By the start of next season, they may not be the only ones worth studying.