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With free agency woes well known, Mavs need Dennis Smith Jr. to be home-run pick

The news was big in Dallas but nowhere else. For the headline grabbing moves in the Western Conference Thursday night, you had All-Star Jimmy Butler landing in Minnesota, you had Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox scooped up by Sacramento and, of course, you had LaVar Ball guaranteeing a Lakers playoff trip in 2018, courtesy of Lonzo Ball.

The Mavericks? They got a guy named Smith.

But when you hear Rick Carlisle talk about grabbing the North Carolina State point guard at No. 9, when you hear him describe the draft room cheers or "thunderous" applause when the Knicks took Frank Ntilikina at No.