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Immanuel Quickley
The early steals of the draft. All three were available with the Mavs pick. We took Josh Green instead. If would be a bit revisionist to say that the Mavs should've taken Quickley or Bane at #18 when many of us would have considered that a reach with the other options on the board. There's no question that Green's upside and pedigree (#13 in his class, consensus 5-star recruit) is impressive.
Quickley is basically a longer, bigger, better defensively Seth Curry. He would be the PERFECT fit next to Luka.
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I like the flashes of ability that Green shows on the rare occasions he gets the opportunity to play, so I'm not ready to write him off.
But in terms of a game-ready rookie who can contribute right-now-this-year, the failure to have scouted and selected Quickley is a categorical failure.
Quickley's herky-jerky style brings to mind 1993-94 vintage rookie Sam Cassell, and he has one of the most developed floater/tear-drop arsenals I've ever seen in a 1st-year player. His 3-game is developing along with his playmaking skills, and his defense is rich with targets for improvement, but he is able to come into a game and immediately put pressure on a defense with his ability to get into the paint for a floater, or to set up a big for a dunk. (If Dennis Smith had had HALF Quickley's ability in the floater-game, things would likely have turned out very differently for him AND the Mavs. As it is, Bullet is playing out the last few days of his NBA career on an NBA-bottom feeding team before being exported to "Chiner".)
Open question as to how Quickley would have done on the Mavericks this year, because assuming Head Guy would've put him in the game, he'd probably still have to pry the ball out of Luka's grasp. But Quickley has proven himself in New York this year, and under a demanding coach (Thibs) in his first year with the team, who is feeling pressure to produce. That's something.