The Dallas Mavericks are on one of the most active draft nights in this CBS Sports mock, receiving three first-round picks via their trade with Oklahoma City and using every slot to build around Cooper Flagg. CBS projects Dallas selecting Brayden Burries at No. 12, Jayden Quaintance at No. 17, and Zuby Ejiofor at No. 30 — three picks, three distinct player archetypes, and a coherent vision for what a sustained Cooper Flagg era looks like in Dallas.

At No. 12, CBS takes Burries — the Arizona freshman who averaged 16.1 points and shot 39.1% from three. Burries is a 6-foot-4 guard with NBA-ready strength and physicality, a ferocious competitor on defense, and the off-ball shooting to function as a spacer alongside Flagg. CBS notes he’s someone Dallas should have been considering at No. 9 before the OKC trade, and argues he is a natural stylistic fit with Flagg: physical, disciplined, and capable of the off-ball contributions that make stars more effective rather than less. He’s 21 before the start of the season — the oldest freshman in this range — which makes his readiness a feature, not a flag.

At No. 17, CBS takes Quaintance — the Kentucky sophomore and one of the most unique prospects in the class. His defensive tape as a freshman at Arizona State was described as “unbelievable,” with elite explosiveness and mobility at 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds. He played just four games at Kentucky due to persistent knee swelling from a torn ACL suffered in his freshman year. If Dallas’s medical staff clears him, Quaintance is a compelling high-risk, high-upside bet at a pick position that rarely offers this kind of ceiling.

At No. 30, Ejiofor is the end-of-first-round find: a St. John’s senior who CBS says swept every major Big East defensive award, a relentless rebounder and motor player with a developing jumper and foundational defensive skills that are already professional-grade. Adding a specialist defensive forward at the back end of round one is ideal depth value for Dallas.

Outlet	Projected Player (First Pick)
CBS Sports	Brayden Burries (Pick 12)
Bleacher Report	Brayden Burries (Pick 9)
Tankathon	Brayden Burries (Pick 9)
Yahoo Sports	Karim López (Pick 9)

The opportunity cost at No. 12 is Labaron Philon Jr. — the Alabama sophomore who averaged 22 points and shot 39.9% from three. Philon is the kind of shot-creating guard who could become a franchise-level offensive weapon in the right system, and CBS acknowledges he might realistically go higher than No. 13 on draft night. Dallas bypasses that scoring upside to prioritize Burries’s physical profile and defensive intensity — the correct stylistic calculation for a Flagg-anchored roster that needs complementary pieces, not competing alpha scorers.

Dallas’s three-pick haul transforms the franchise’s developmental trajectory. Flagg is established as the centerpiece, and adding Burries, Quaintance, and Ejiofor in one draft gives the Mavericks a roster foundation that doesn’t require free agency to take the next step. If Quaintance’s medicals are clean, the upside of this night extends further still. Building a contender around a generational talent by loading up on high-upside complementary players in the draft — rather than overpaying veterans in free agency — is exactly the modern franchise-building blueprint, and Dallas executes it here.