Wake Up Little Nellie, It's NBA Draft Day...

As I settled in to watch a little of this year's NBA draft, I looked at one of the final mock drafts online and scrolled down to see who the Dallas Mavericks were predicted to take at pick #24. To my astonishment, it wasn't a 7'3" Euro or Chinese guy, and thankfully the Mavs will be saved from themselves as it's likely that Tyler Hansbrough will be off the board.

Why the negativity, you ask?

Well, take a look at the Mavericks' first round draft picks during the Donnie Nelson era (1998-present):

1998: Robert Traylor (became Dirk Nowitzki).

1999: Leon Smith (releaesed after less than a year and a failed suicide attempt).

2000: Etan Thomas, Courtney Alexander & Donnell Harvey - somehow Thomas is still in the league and is best known for his poetry and feud with Brendan Haywood and the Mavs thought so much of Alexander that they traded him half way through his rookie season and he was out of the NBA after only 3 seasons. Harvey only lasted one year in Dallas, and was also out of the league by 2004. You get THREE picks in the first round of a draft and completely BOMB on all three of them. How does that happen? I couldn't do that if I was drunk and just looked at a list of available players for the first time 30 seconds before each pick.

2001: No first round pick.

2002: No pick.

2003: Josh Howard. A great pick that Donnie supporters always throw in your face when you dare to criticize his career moves.

2004: No pick.

2005: No pick.

2006: Maurice Ager. I remember actually liking this pick when they made it as I thought they had drafted the slasher and athletic wing that they needed so badly. Alas, the Mavs traded him after one year and he is currently riding the pine in New Jersey.

2007: Nick Fazekas. Maybe they thought this guy was Dirk Lite. He wasn't even close. He is currently waiting for his knees to explode in Clipperland.

2008: No pick.

2009: ??? (I hope it's Darren Collison, a former Bruin and a winner).

You gotta give Nelson his props for the Dirk move, a trade that always comes up in The Biggest Basketball Fleecings of All Time conversation, and for grabbing Josh Howard at the bottom of the first round. After that, their first round picks have been unmitigated disasters. Only Nowitzki and Howard remained with the Mavs for more than one season.

Amazingly, Dallas won 50+ games during the last nine seasons essentially without any home grown talent to speak of. Just another testament to the greatness of Dirk Nowitzki, and I guess we have to recognize the relative success of Nelson's free agent signings and trades. Oh wait, scratch that - for FIVE of the past 11 drafts, the Mavs didn't have a first round pick cuz it was traded away.

When you put it on paper like this, Little Nellie makes Isiah Thomas look kinda shrewd. And if you really want to read a horror story, take a look at the string of second round garbage that the Mavs picked in the last ten years. Not a single one of them, except Eduardo Najera, is still cashing a NBA paycheck.