The pick is in.

With the ninth pick in the 2026 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks Select, Morris Johnson Jr. forward from Michigan.

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I am Teneitra Batiste, and I'm joined now by Nick Angstad from Locked-on Mavs.

So you hire Dusty May, you take a Michigan man, but was this the Michigan man or even the player you thought the Mavre take at nine? Man, I know the conventional wisdom was that they would take a Michigan guy. You had a DiMara there. You had Jackson Lindbergh there. Obviously, Morris Johnson was all there on the board for the Mavericks. But there's just a part of me that still thought they would go with Braden Burries. He was the guy that was mocked to the Mavericks the most.

And I probably should have just known that the one that's mocked in every single mock draft to the team will never go to that team.

The mocks are never all right.

But so far in this draft, they've all been kind of right.

So they get more as Johnson.

I think this is a fascinating pick and kind of a culture pick for the Mavericks. Yeah. And when you look at him, you look at May, Morris coming off that championship run,

how does that help them to get the Mavs back on track in a tough Western conference? And like you

say, just kind of reset the culture of winning. Yeah. This is this is one where you bring in

Dusty May as the coach. you got Morris Johnson, and now you

have somebody that knows his systems, knows how he works. And better than that, Dusty May knows

how Morris Johnson works. And so he knows bringing him into a system, knows how he can support

Cooper Flag, how he can help in this. And Morris is an interesting player because he played a lot

of like wing three, four in college, but he's going to be playing some five in the NBA, I think. He was playing next to a DiMara. And so I think this is an interesting pick in that right. He can play next to Derek lively. He can obviously play next to Cooper Flag. And that front court defensively is stout with Flagg, Morris Johnson and Derek lively. It's a very interesting tandem there. And Morris Johnson has a lot to prove in the NBA. I think his jump shot is something that is a big question for a lot of people. But Dusty May has said that he believes in Morris Johnson jump shots so that he can become a reliable three-point shooter in the NBA. And if he believes that he's the coach, he's the one that's going to have to get it out of him and become the guy that helps develop that three-point shot.

So if he believes it, then go for it. And I think that's what the Dallas Mavericks ended up deciding. And Nick, you called some of those areas, called out some of those areas of improvement. So I'm going to go back to it, one of which is that shooting.

Like you're going to have to get a three-point shot.

But also him being a little bit undersized is one of the concerns that's. Like you're going to have to get a three point shot, but also him being a

little bit undersized is one of the concerns that's been out there as well. What are maybe some of those concerns for you for Mores Johnson coming into his rookie season? Yeah, if the maps are going to take him as a center and make him a full-time center, he'd be a little undersized. I mean, we've seen centers like, you know, Ine Ongwu and, you know, even Daniel Gafford or like a Dwight Howard in the past that are not necessarily these seven foot, like pure seven foot type centers. And they've worked in the NBA. But Morris is going to play a lot of, a lot of four. He tested at the combine laterally and you know, with the agility drills and things like that, as good as some of the guards he is in a fluid athlete one of the best defenders in this draft Caleb Wilson and him are like right up there between the two of them as who's the best defender in this draft and so he does have some you know some ways to go offensively but I don't think you're bringing him in and asking him to be your second best offensive player or even like, you know, a guy that's high up

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