Trade Talk: Helping the Thunder in exchange for a pick

As things currently stand, the Dallas Mavericks have two picks in the first round of the NBA Draft later this month, namely their own #9 and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s #30. In what is clearly a deep draft, the Mavs would do well to get as many bites of the apple as possible to build around Cooper Flagg, and the Thunder are an excellent candidate to help them out.

We previously considered swaps with the Sacramento Kings for Malik Monk and the Philadelphia 76ers for former MVP Joel Embiid, both of which featured incoming picks. Today we take another approach at an optically smaller, but no less meaningful, swing.

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Joining me for this potential transaction are MMB’s Jack Nowicki and Bryan Porter.

The trade proposal

The Mavericks use their Traded Player Exception (TPE) and their 2026 #30 pick (which ironically belonged to the Thunder originally) to move up to #17 by way of taking on the contract of Isaiah Joe.

The discussion

Mike: I like this trade a lot. I am very hopeful the Mavs will actually take advantage of the TPE. If they can get an improved pick while retaining all other tradable assets, that is a major win and possibly the best asset management this franchise has demonstrated in years. If we could do OKC a favor by taking that salary off their books and they reciprocated by helping us jump 13 spots in this year’s draft, we ought to be sending a limo north to pick Joe up.

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Brian: Yeah, I’d love to upgrade in this way and make use of our TPE to absorb a deal like this to move up in the draft. If I could quibble with it a bit, I would rather Aaron Wiggins than Joe because he’s bigger and cheaper, but the lesser of the two is probably the only one OKC considers accepting a deal like this for if they can’t move them into someone else’s space.

Jack: This would be an amazing trade for the Mavericks for multiple reasons. First, moving up to #17 allows them to take another blue chip player that could compliment #9, with Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie being my first choice. Second, adding another useful role player that fits next to Cooper Flagg is a large bonus, as Joe is an elite…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/trade-talk-helping-thunder-exchange-161257734.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-12 16:12:00

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