Mavs get good Mikel Brown news for NBA Draft thanks to other guards; Cooper Flagg would be happy

Mavs get good Mikel Brown news for NBA Draft thanks to other guards; Cooper Flagg would be happy originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Dallas Mavericks had incredible lottery luck a year ago, moving all the way up to the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, which allowed them to pick Cooper Flagg.

They might not need luck like that this year to end up with a great player.

The Mavs currently slot at No. 8 in the lottery odds, and ESPN's Jeremy Woo has them using that spot in his latest mock draft to take Louisville's Mikel Brown Jr.

Brown arrived in college as probably the top guard in his class, but a back injury held him back as a freshman, and it allowed Darius Acuff, Keaton Wagler and Kingston Flemings to at least potentially leapfrog him.

That could work out nicely for the Mavericks. Getting Brown with the eighth pick could wind up being a steal.

"Brown's back injury made it difficult for him to boost his stock in-season, making the predraft process critical to show teams he is healthy and remind them of his significant offensive talent," Woo writes. "His positional size, shooting ability and playmaking skill should stand out in workout settings, but he needs a positive spring to work his way further up the board in a guard-heavy lottery, with Acuff, Wagler and Flemings all having outstanding seasons. There are still scouts who view Brown's upside as the highest of the group, but it might take some work for him to leap ahead of the other top guards."