NBA teams are notorious for trying to sneak their way into a high lottery pick. Many times, the prize at the end of the rainbow is worth losing other talents, like when Victor Wembanyama or Cooper Flagg are available and known to be top-rated prospects. Other times, the best players end up hidden later in the draft.
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Such was the case in 2013, when the Cavs took UNLV forward Anthony Bennett with the No. 1 overall pick. There was no can’t-miss player that year, but even so, Bennett’s selection was a shock. Maybe the Cavs had become complacent after taking LeBron James and Kyrie Irving No. 1 overall, but needless to say, Bennett did not work out.
There were some good players taken later, like Victor Oladipo, CJ McCollum, Steven Adams and Dennis Schroder. The gem of the draft ended up going 15th, though, when the Milwaukee Bucks took Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Looking at Giannis now, it’s easy to say that any executive that passed on him should have been fired and blackballed from the league. The Greek Freak is a two-time MVP and easily one of the best players in the game, and in 2021, he led the Bucks to their first title since 1971.
Back then, it wasn’t so obvious that Giannis would be great. Still, missing out on him has caused many sleepless nights. One of those affected is Mark Cuban, as he told Theo Pinson on the Run Your Race podcast yesterday.
“That was the year we tried to get up cap room for Dwight Howard,” Cuban said. “And to get cap room for Dwight Howard, we had to trade down a couple times. Some of our scouts and GM wanted to pick Giannis, and I was like, ‘I can’t do that to Dirk, we got a plan.'”
Cuban learned the hard way that he should have trusted his basketball people, but in fairness, he didn’t have much to go on. “War room, all we had was two VHS cassettes of Giannis, that was it,” he said. “Because he played in this B league in Greece, there was no other video. And I’m like, ‘You want me to give up on getting Dwight Howard and trying to get back [to the Finals]?'”
Dwight was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year and a much better known entity than a kid from Greece that nobody had seen play, so it made sense that Cuban would try to pair him with Dirk Nowitzki to repeat the Mavs’ 2011 title run. The Rockets ended up signing him instead, though, and he ended up with neither.
“I said no, and it turned out … another bad decision,” Cuban lamented. “I’m making myself look like a real m************ idiot, aren’t I?”
Cuban may have missed on Giannis, but it’s not like all of his decisions were bad. He did win a ring, and spearheaded the draft day trade five years later that brought Luka Doncic to Dallas. As for the guy that traded Luka away? He was fired just last week.
Cuban was reportedly involved in pushing to have Nico Harrison removed, and has now gained a seat back at the table after being cut out of basketball decisions since selling the majority stake of the team in 2023. Let’s hope he’s learned from his mistakes.
