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The Dallas Mavericks wish that they could change a lot of things in their organization since the 2025 trade deadline. While Mark Cuban clearly still has resentment towards trading Luka Doncic, he had more manageable woes when it came to the NBA Draft. The former majority owner really wanted two players in the past decade and a half: Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo back in 2013 and Philadelphia 76ers rising star Tyrese Maxey during the 2020 draft.
Cuban outlines biggest NBA Draft regrets
The Mavs front office is great at building a loyal culture around their talents. Dirk Nowitzki notched the hardest Larry O'Brien Trophy in NBA history and retired there. Luka Doncic loved being with the squad until he was unfortunately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers by Nico Harrison. Cuban made it easy for his stars to stay and win. All he needed was to have better hindsight in the NBA Draft back in 2013 and 2020, via The Adam Friedland Show.
"Tyrese Maxey was a big miss for us recently. Greek Freak was probably the biggest," Cuban declared.
Notably, the Mavs had the 13th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. They got Kelly Olynyk out of Gonzaga and it was not until the 15th pick that the Bucks selected Antetokounmpo. Olynyk has been a serviceable big in the NBA for 13 years now but he never played for the Mavs. He was immediately traded by Cuban and the rest of the front office to the Boston Celtics. Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, has spent all of his years with the Bucks along with that he notched two Most Valuable Player honors, a Defensive Player of the Year trophy, and a Larry O'Brien trophy in 2021.
For the 2020 NBA Draft, the Mavs had the 18th pick. They selected Josh Green out of Arizona that year. Three picks later, the Sixers ended up getting their star guard in Maxey. Green was able to play four years for the Mavs and even help them in the 2024 NBA Finals. He now plays for the Charlotte Hornets. Meanwhile, Maxey has not gotten the same postseason success yet but did get two All-Star selections and a Most Improved Player trophy in 2024.
There are a lot of decisions that Cuban would have liked to make as a majority owner in the Mavs front office. But, he can only step aside for a while and help the current majority owners make better decisions after handling operations for nearly a quarter of a century.
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