The Dallas Mavericks were fun and bold and successful last week in the NBA Draft.

It’s been a while.

Since wheeling and dealing their way to a pair of league MVPs — Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash — on NBA Draft night in 1998 the Mavericks had largely been a bystander at the draft.

There was an exception in 2004 when the Mavericks moved up to No. 5 to take Devin Harris, but for the most part Dallas was there at the draft, officially, but they were checking Facebook, keeping a Snap streak alive or checking flight schedules. The bigger story on stage was passing them by.

But not in 2018. The Mavericks got the player they liked most or at worst had No. 2 on the board. The surprising thing in NBA circles in June is to hear truth slip out, but Dallas had made no secret of its love for Luke Doncic, the 19-year-old star guard from Slovenia.

It could have been easy if the ping-pong balls at the lottery had cooperated, but being mad at that outcome wasn’t worth 15 years of frustration in Mark Cuban or Donnie Nelson’s mind. So they acted boldly and gave up an extra pick to go two spots and get the youngest Euro League Final Four MVP.

Now the Mavericks have three players you could envision starting an NBA Finals game in Dennis Smith Jr. (long ways to go but talent is there), Harrison Barnes (he’s done that and gotten better since) and Doncic.

And even if Smith and Doncic are both creators and best with the ball in their hands, there's plenty of opportunities for both. Carlisle likes two and even three point-guard lineups as we saw last year with Smith, J.J. Barea and 6-3 Devin Harris at "smallest" forward. At least going forward one of the guys is 6-7 in the three-guard setup.

While that’s not enough to compete in the Western Conference just yet, it is a start. And the best way to get good free agents is mostly having good talent already on board. The Mavericks do have a future which is quite a present to the next generation of Mavs’ fans who missed out on Nowitzki’s amazing prime.

Being bold allowed the Mavericks to build a consistent winner with Nowitzki. Being bold allowed them to let a two-time MVP walk away and still make two NBA Finals.

But their recent history was a series of second-place free agency finishes on Deron Williams, DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard and others. And they weren’t good enough to be on LeBron James’ or Kevin Durant’s radar.

The Mavericks probably won’t get James this time, either, but do have the cap room to be a player in free agency. Can they add one more player they can envision Rick Carlisle starting in an NBA Final? If not, the money would be best kept for the following summer.

 

YOUTH BOXERS COMPETING AT NATIONALS

Two Wichita Falls athletes are getting a chance to compete for a national championship this week in West Virginia. Emanuel Moreno is already a four-time national champion and Emmanuel Carrillo is a three-time winner. Moreno won gold at the 2017 National Junior Olympic Championship.

 

RYAN BRASIER CLOSING STRONG

Another Wichitan who’s been registering punchouts with regularity of late has been Ryan Brasier, the former Rider High School baseball great. Brasier is pitching for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox in the International League, one step away from the big leagues.

Brasier is serving as Pawtucket’s closer and has converted 10-of-11 save chances. Brasier has pitched 35 innings with 25 hits and eight walks allowed. He has 37 strikeouts and has held International League hitters to a .214 average.

Brasier, 30, has a 1.54 ERA for the season and a 0.00 ERA in his last 10 outings.