Art Garcia | Mavs.com

Posted: June 24, 2008

History is a guide when assessing the Mavericks’ strategy going into Thursday’s NBA Draft. Whether or not they add extra picks to complement their second-round choice (No. 51), the approach is to bring in as much talent as possible.

President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and his staff often do so without the benefit of an actual pick. With the Draft lasting only two rounds (60 picks) and the trend in the second round to select players that remain overseas for a year or more, a number of players with NBA potential are falling through the cracks.

That’s where the Mavs come in. In the last few years, they’ve signed a number of rookie free agents that made the regular-season roster. A sampling: Marquis Daniels (2003), Rawle Marshall (2005), Josh Powell (2005), Pops Mensah-Bonsu (2006) and JJ Barea (2006).

“We do that every year,” Nelson said. “The guys that aren’t drafted, we’ll be very aggressive at taking a look to see if something makes sense. We’ve had pretty good success with that in the past with guys like JJ, Marquis, Pops and others down the line.”

Rookie free agents may not officially count when assessing a team’s draft, but those diamonds in the rough serve many purposes. Young, athletic and hungry players can help the competitiveness of practice. They can improve their skills in the D-League and perhaps contribute with the big club at some point in the season. They can be used to fill out trades.

Nelson has his eye on a number of rookies should they fall out of the Draft. As far as the Draft, Nelson is open to any situation that can add depth behind the starters. Outside of the Dirk Nowitzki-Brandon Bass tandem at power forward, the other four spots are fair game.

“At 51 you can’t be picky,” Nelson said. “It’s really about what gets down to us. Generally speaking, we’re going with the best player on the board. With the exception of Brandon backing up Dirk, we have openings at the backup 1, 2, 3 and 5. Somebody is going to get an opportunity.”