{"id":730268,"date":"2026-06-28T02:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730268\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T02:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:03:17","slug":"mavericks-take-morez-johnson-jr-at-no-9-in-quiet-nba-draft-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730268\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks take Morez Johnson Jr. at No. 9 in quiet NBA draft first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS, Texas \u2014 The NBA draft unfolded without the fireworks many fans expected, with no lottery-day trades as teams largely stuck to their boards. Still, the Dallas Mavericks drew attention with their first-round selection.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Dallas Pulse sweep Columbus Fury to complete perfect season series, 4-0 in sets<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mavericks<\/p>\n

Mavericks take Morez Johnson Jr. at No. 9 in quiet NBA draft first round<\/p>\n

Dallas used the ninth overall pick to take big man Morez Johnson Jr., adding size and defense and a player their new head coach already knows well. Johnson played his freshman season at Illinois before transferring to Michigan, where he reunited with Dusty May.<\/p>\n

That move paid off quickly. May led the Wolverines to a 64-13 record over two seasons, and Johnson started all 40 games during Michigan\u2019s national championship season. He was named to the All-Big Ten Defensive Team and the NCAA All-Tournament Team after establishing himself as one of the top defenders in college basketball.<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n

While some draft experts expected Dallas to target a higher-upside prospect, the Mavericks chose a player seen as a culture fit who can contribute right away. Johnson\u2019s rebounding, physicality and defensive presence are expected to pair well with top pick Cooper Flagg as Dallas continues building a young core with an eye on winning now and in the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS, Texas \u2014 The NBA draft unfolded without the fireworks many fans expected, with no lottery-day trades as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-730268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}