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If you haven't seen SB Nation NBA's newest masterpiece, the top 100 players of 2017, go check it out!
Unless you're a Mavericks fan, in which case it might be better to go find a corner and start crying.
That's right: out of thirty NBA teams, the Dallas Mavericks are the ONLY team to have zero players projected in the top 100 five years from now. And considering that the biggest complaint about the front office has been it's insistence on ignoring young talent, it can't really come as a surprise. But it's still depressing to be presented with the reality of it all.
(The Lakers' only representative was Kobe Bryant, a questionable pick at best, so you could argue that there should be two teams with zero players on the list. But even then, the other 28 NBA squads all had at least two.)
Of course, this doesn't mean the Mavericks WON'T have a top 100 player in 2017, just that they DON'T currently have a player who projects to be that good. "Cap space" has become a tired word in the Dallas metroplex, but it doesn't change the fact that the Mavericks do have room to negotiate next year and grab a high-quality player. There are ways to acquire a player who might become very good, assuming the SB Nation NBA guys are right about none of the current Dallas guys turning out to be that good five years
And, as they'll free admit, they're probably not. Let's take a quick look at which current Mavericks did get snubbed.
Dirk Nowitzki
I don't care what anyone say, Dirk is still going to be putting up 20/10 years when he's 65. The word "retirement" doesn't exist in German.
Brandan Wright
A real case could be made for a 25-year-old jumping jack. His per-36 minutes stats and PER indicate that he's ready to make the jump from role player to full-time starter. I could easily see Wright being a super efficient finisher with elite defense five years from now.
Monta Ellis
It's no surprise Ellis didn't make the list, because the basketball world frowns on inefficient volume shooters. But if he were to change his career arc, it'd be with a team that didn't require him to be the number one option and had a distributing point guard, while under one of the best coaches in the league.
Ricky Ledo
DURANT 2.0! Well, we can hope, right?
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Give your two cents in the comments -- what'd you think of the list, and the lack of representation from the Mavericks?