By Dorothy J. Gentry
Sports Editor
The newest Dallas Mavericks is Josh Green, a 19-year-old elite guard/forward from Arizona.
“I love the Mavericks. It’s something I continued to stress to my agent. ‘What are the Mavericks thinking? Where are they? So I’m stoked right now. I was all for it. I was super pumped,” said Green, moments after being drafted.
“I felt like I got along with them very well. You can tell they take their player development very seriously as well as their organization. I’m glad to be here.”
Head Coach Rick Carlisle called Green a “terrific two-way player and a terrific athlete from Australia. We had a terrific interview with him about two weeks ago and watched a lot of film on him.
“What we needed first for our roster are wing defenders that can shoot, score and make plays and we feel he’s a ready-to-go 3-and-D guy and he has the ability to make plays.”
Green, who turns 20 on November 16th, is a native of Sydney, Australia. He attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where he led the school to the 2019 high school national championship and was named MVP of the game.
He started all 30 games he appeared in as a freshman in college at Arizona and averaged 12 pts, 4.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.53 steals (ranked sixth in the Pac-12 in steals). He recorded a team-high 46 steals in 2019-20, sixth all-time for an Arizona freshman.
In other news, the Mavs traded fan-favorite Seth Curry to the Philadelphia 76ers for Josh Richardson and the No. 36 pick which they used to select Tyler Bey from the University of Colorado.
The Mavs also selected Tyrell Terry out of Stanford University with the 31st overall pick in the second round. He averaged 14.6 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game and 3.2 assists per game in his only season with Stanford.
Dallas entered the night with two picks (one first-round selection, 18th overall; one second-round pick, 31st overall). The Mavericks gave up two future first-rounders in the deal that brought Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee to Dallas on Jan. 31, 2019. Dallas conceded the first of those two opening-round selections in last year’s draft.
The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Anthony Edwards as the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft held Wednesday night at ESPN’s studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
It marked the league’s first virtual draft and the first draft held at ESPN. This was the first draft not held in June since 1975.
James Wiseman out of Memphis went second overall and LaMelo Ball went third overall to the Charlotte Hornets.
