Darius Acuff's Concerning Take on His Defense Should Make Mavericks Stay Away

With about a week and a half remaining before the 2026 NBA Draft, boards are starting to be finalized around the league. The Dallas Mavericks hold the 9th, 30th, and 48th overall picks and will likely look to upgrade their backcourt as they look to build their team around Cooper Flagg.

A lot of the players projected to go in the back half of the top ten are guards, which is exactly what the Mavs are looking for. Keaton Wagler, Darius Acuff Jr., Mikel Brown Jr., Kingston Flemings, Labaron Philon, and Brayden Burries are all players who could go in the 5-10 range, and how teams around the NBA view those prospects will be fascinating to see play out.

Darius Acuff Jr. is arguably the most polarizing of the bunch. He was electric offensively in his lone season at Arkansas, averaging 23.5 PPG and 6.4 APG while shooting 48.4% from the floor and 44% from three. Of the guards listed, there's no question he's the best offensively of the bunch. However, his defense is wildly concerning, and he is the worst defender of those guards by far.

When he measured into the NBA combine with a 6'6.5" wingspan, some around the NBA believed he could develop into a good defender. Then, he went on the "Draymond Green Show" this week and proved that he just doesn't care about that end of the floor.

“You can ask any of my coaches in college, no matter how many defensive mistakes I made every night, if they tried to put me on a 2 or a 3, I'm like 'man I'm not guarding no 3, I play the point man, I'm guarding the point guard, man,' especially if it's like a matchup," Acuff said. "...Like, if I'm not guarding you and you not guarding me, it ain't no matchup, we just hooping out here so I definitely like to guard my matchup.”

Darius Acuff talks defense and guarding his matchup with Draymond

“You can ask any of my coaches in college, no matter how many defensive mistakes I made every night, if they tried to put me on a 2 or a 3, I'm like 'man I'm not guarding no 3, I play the point man, I'm guarding… pic.twitter.com/SolK0OeACq
— The Draymond Green Show (@DraymondShow) June 10, 2026

The NBA Does Not Play Defense Like This

Darius Acuff can say he wants to guard his position, but the NBA just doesn't do that anymore. The league has never been more versatile, more athletic, or more skilled. Teams will match you up on who they think is the best fit, and offenses will constantly screen, trying to get switches to pick on the weakest defender. A player has to be willing to guard anybody. We just saw Devin Vassell guard Chet Holmgren for most of the Western Conference Finals.

Based on this answer, teams are going to constantly hunt him in matchups. We can already see someone like Cooper Flagg getting screens from whoever Acuff is guarding and easily getting by him. If Acuff wants to guard his position, Kyrie Irving would just continuously get buckets on him.

While there's a lot of belief that the Sacramento Kings will select Acuff with the 7th pick, if he's on the board with the 9th pick, this answer is enough that the Mavericks should stay away.

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