 Maurice Ager with David Stern.
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DALLAS (June 28, 2006) —The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they have selected guard Maurice Ager with the 28th overall selection of the 2006 NBA Draft.
Ager (6-5, 202) finished his four-year career at Michigan State ranked 11th in career scoring (1,554 points), fourth in 3-point field goals made (202) and third in 3-point field goals attempted (532). He was named Second Team All-Big Ten by the media as a senior when he averaged 19.3 points per game and Second Team All-Big Ten by the coaches following his junior season when he led the Spartans in scoring (14.1 ppg).
The Detroit native saw action in 30-plus games in each of his final three seasons at Michigan State and started all 34 games for the Spartans as a senior. In his final postseason, Ager was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team after averaging 19.0 points.
“We are excited about taking Maurice Ager with our late first round pick,” Head Coach Avery Johnson said. “He was a four-year player at Michigan State for Tom Izzo and improved every year. He fits into our system and fills a need for us as a guard who can play tough defense and solid offense. This is the guy we were hoping would fall back to us and we are glad to have him.”
The Dallas Mavericks traded the draft rights of J.R. Pinnock, who they selected with the 58th pick of the 2006 NBA Draft, to the Los Angeles Lakers for a second round pick (via Miami) in 2007.
Avery Johnson on 28th Overall Pick Maurice Ager
We’re excited to announce that we’ve taken Maurice Ager out of Michigan State with our first round pick. Six-five, slasher, defender… can score… great body. I had a chance to talk with his coach Tim Izzo and Jim Boylen who’s an assistant coach there. We had a long discussion about him. We really excited to have a four-year player who improved each and every year. He just fits in well with our system. We were looking for that kind of guy in the draft. We were fortunate to fill a need at the 28th pick.
Can he be part of the rotation next season?
Yes. I think from what we’ve seen, he can give us a few minutes next year. We were looking for a guy that had the potential to be a shutdown guy at the two-spot. We don’t think we have that on our team. We also wanted that guy to be someone who could stretch the defense a little bit. You want lay off of him and will respect his shot. To be able to get this type of player at 28, we’re really excited. This is the guy we were hoping would fall to us.
Did you meet him already?
No. We run a battery of interviews but he wasn’t one of the guys. This is a guy who could have gone as high as 10 or 12 so we’re glad to have him.
What do you think of his reaction to being drafted?
He was pretty emotional! I don’t know how emotional he’s going to be when I work him in training camp but he was pretty excited. I like that.
What stands out about him?
Great body. At the end of the game, he was the guy that they’d put on another guy to get stops. Obviously, his teammate Shannon Brown was pretty good. We liked him also. He went a couple picks ahead of us. We like Ager’s defensive skills. We think coming out of last year, we’re pretty good defensively at the point guard spot and at the three-spot but we thought we had to get better defensively at the two-spot but also have someone that can score. As much as we stress defense, coming out of this season we know we want to have guys who can defend but we need guys who can also score.
Is he a guy who will go to the rack if his shot isn’t falling?
Yeah. He can put the ball on the floor a little bit and get to the basket. No first-round guy is flawless. There’s going to be things I’m going to have to coach and work with him on. We were successful a couple years back in getting Josh Howard and he progressed. This is a guy we’re hoping can be in that same mold that can be one of our top players a couple years from now but at the same time can come right in as a rookie and potentially play for us.
How important was it that he was a four-year guy?
That was important for me. It was more important than getting a guy coming out of his freshman season, 19 years old. You just don’t know if you have to wait three or four years. We’re not really in that situation. We kind of catapulted ourselves pretty much where I wanted us in that championship talk and that championship level. We really didn’t want a guy who we’d have to wait on as a project.
Is there any Jerry Stackhouse in his game?
Yes, I like his toughness. He took all of the big shots for Michigan State. I asked Coach Izzo, ‘Who did you throw the ball to the last two years when you needed something to get done in the last minute of the game?” He said hands down Mo. He said, believe it or not, you may be able to count on him some next year in those situations.
Maurice Ager on being Selected by the Mavericks
What do you think about going to the Mavericks?
Oh, it’s great. It’s a perfect situation going on there. I love the way they play, I love Avery Johnson. I just think things are going to work out perfect.
Avery Johnson was raving about your defensive ability. Can you talk about that?
I don’t think it’s going to be hard getting used to Avery Johnson because I’m defensive minded. I feel like playing four years at Michigan State and being coached by a defensive coach is going to help me a lot.
Are you glad you stayed all four season?
I think it was a great decision. I had a chance to grow up and become a man. I think four years of college really helps.
Did you watch the Finals and the trouble the Mavericks had with Dwyane Wade?
I was rooting for Dallas the whole way. I wish the series went longer but hopefully next year I be there to help them get over the hump.
Did you know anything about Avery before this?
I know he played for the Spurs. I know he’s always been a great leader. He did a great job of turning the Dallas Mavericks into a defensive team.
Donnie Nelson on 28th Overall Pick Maurice Ager
On Maurice Ager:
We had no idea he was going to slip and fall to us. We’ve got a need of an athletic guy who can guard and can make shots. He fills that. He has terrific upside. We couldn’t be happier.
Did you think about bringing him in for a workout?
We had enough information on him going in and he was expected to go higher. We got lucky. He brings athleticism, toughness and has a defensive mindset. He can shoot it from deep. He’s got some good stuff to work with.
Do you feel the same about Ager as you felt about Josh Howard?
Oh, I think they’re different players. I think he’s got real good upside. I think lower first round picks like Josh…those are big shoes to fill but we’re pretty excited about this young kid.
Does playing in a big conference like the Big 10 help him?
Yeah, that helps. It helped Josh. There’s no question. He’s been in tough situations up there. He played for a great coach. We just feel really fortunate to get him where we picked.
Were you surprised with how the draft went in the first round?
There were a lot of teams out there that were looking for specific things. All of the different point guards were on the board till the very end. That’s very uncommon especially with that being such a need out there. There was a lot of scrambling towards the end of the first round for those guys and I think that’s kind of why Ager fell to us. Those point guards went kind of went right in a row towards the end and I think people kind of forgot about him.
Talk about how you weren’t necessarily looking for a guy who could help right away but found one:
We went in hopeful that this would happen, Ager slipping. We had a number of guys, around 25, that we felt could come in and potentially help us. We needed a couple of surprise picks in there to help us out. We were active. We had a couple of guys we were interested in trading up for. We weren’t able to do that for various reasons but Ager fell into our lap.
