DALLAS — When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that the New York Knicks took Frank Ntilikina with the eighth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Mavericks war room emerged from their silence.
“There was an uproarious group applause in there,” Rick Carlisle said. “It was thunderous. We’re very fortunate.”
The Mavericks got their guy
With the ensuing ninth pick, Dallas took Dennis Smith, Jr. from N.C. State, and a franchise that had spent years chasing stars and dreams through free agency might have finally gotten their star from the process fans had been begging them to use since the title team — the draft.