Howard is Mavs' lottery ticket
Howard is Mavs' lottery ticket
Forward likely a top-10 pick if teams could get do-over in 2003 draft
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
If Josh Howard had played the last two months the way he's played the last two weeks, he'd be looking at an All-Star invitation tonight alongside Dirk Nowitzki.
Kind of makes you wonder how Howard was the last pick of the first round in the 2003 draft. If everybody in the NBA knew then what they know now, Howard would be on the cusp of stardom for the Clippers or Bulls or somebody else. He never would have slipped to the Mavericks.
By the estimation of Avery Johnson and Del Harris, Howard would go no lower than seventh or possibly fifth if the 2003 draft were redone today.
LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, who visits American Airlines Center tonight with the Miami Heat, would be the first four picks, with Darko Milicic, who went second to Detroit, out of the equation.
"Minimum, top five or 10," Johnson said. "And it depends on the team. If I'm doing the mock draft, [Howard's] in there. I say a prayer for whoever is responsible for that one."
It wasn't Johnson. Don Nelson and Harris were the ones who went out on a limb and decided to draft Howard.
It's paid off as Howard's averaged 22 points and 7.4 rebounds in the last five games while shooting 58.8 percent.
"There's no question he would be No. 6 or maybe 7, at the lowest, if we did it again," said Harris. "It would be Josh, Kirk Hinrich and Chris Kaman, just because those two guys are a point guard and a center, who would be the picks after those first four."
Reliving the moment: It got lost in the moment of Tuesday's win over the Lakers, but the Mavericks tied their best defensive first quarter in franchise history when they limited LA to 10 points.
"That first-quarter defense probably was as good as I've seen in a long time," Johnson said. "No matter who you do it to, when you hold a team to 10 points in a quarter, that's pretty special."
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