[OhCanada-Participant]

 The Mavs went from a boarderline .500 team competing for the 8th seed to now 7th overall lottery slot with a likely 6th to 8th finish. They might get that pick. They have space for 2 big free agents and have 2 of the best young players in the game as well.

All this talk about the Lakers, Clippers and Knicks being free agent favorites…I see no better situation then in Dallas. What a turnaround.

[HitsterParticipant]

 If they got lucky in the lottery then it could be huge for them. It would also be fun to see what they did if they say landed 3rd pick and Morant was the best player on the board.

Being potentially able to bring in two FAs could be a big factor too. The Nets, Knicks and Clippers also have the potential to do this and if  Dallas could compete with them then they would be an interesting option for a lot of players being a big market team and having a title winnig coach.

[khaled_a_dParticipant]

What do you mean by tanking?
Some would define tanking by losing many games, but some -including me- will define it by losing intentionally
I don’t think there intentional losing at all, we lost our best bench player due to injury, we traded 3 starters to get injured KP as a long term move, we then decided to move another starter in Barnes to create cap space in off-season.
Those were all legit moves aiming for the future, but for the current season we ended up with a misfitting scrubs from the Mavs/Kings/Knicks and Luka Doncic. The season was over and the players knew it.
If this team started the season, they would have been bottom 3 teams, and most likely worst team in the league. We can’t win games with those players.
It is all good tbh, we got our future pieces in KP, it doesn’t affect us what pick Hawks get whether it is 6th or 12th. If we get our pick then great, if we lose it then it is good to start paying our draft debt, it is a long way till we have all of our future 1sts.
PS: We will have only 1 max slot

[OhCanada-Participant]

 Never said theres two max slots. They have space for two decent players if Kristaps signs the qaulifying offer they maybe able to get someone like Valanciunas and still sign someone to the max.

Players dont lose on purpose but management can gives the coach little options and thats what Dallas did. Any team trades away 4 starters for longterm assets then loses 9 of 10 games is tanking. Not sure you can find a better example. I get your point though they are still giving Hardaway Jr. 30 minutes and 20 shots a game but that was the Knicks way of tanking earlier in the season.

Like you said you cant win games with what they lost and what they got back but dont you think that was by design? 

[khaled_a_dParticipant]

Don’t think it was by design at all
Mavs wanted KP for long time, Knicks made us bleed for him, costing us future cap space (for bad players) our starting lineup, our 2nd best young player, 2 draft picks. You don’t design something like that to tank, you do it for a player you believe is a franchise level of talent
Barnes was then trades to give us flexibility to fill the holes in the team in the off-season.
Being awful was a side effect to that, we were obviously aware of if when we made the moves but it was never the goal of our moves

[kindofblueParticipant]

 Mark Cuban defintely told Rick to lose the rest of the games this season. Dallas might end up with Zion or RJ. There’s no point fighting for the playoffs. 

Mark knows what he’s doing. This is their last tanking year if all things go as he expects. 

[HitsterParticipant]

 A team like Dallas would benefit more for tanking the rest of the season and trying to keep their pick. It’s then about the Summer FA moves and getting Porz fit and resigned to a long term deal.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

 I wouldn’t say the Mavs are tanking this year. Yes, they are losing a lot of games and they did trade a lot of players around the trade deadline to get to where they are now, but if you think about it Luka was the team before those trades yet they weren’t built very well around him, then around the trade deadline they made all those trades to better build the team around him so they are set for the future. DSJ did not fit very well with Luka so they traded him. He has a bright future, but the Mavs committed themselves to building around Luka, who is a better player. DSJ just didn’t fit in with him. Same with Deandre Jordan. Wesley Matthews and Barnes are good players too but they both had horrible contracts so they needed to get rid of them to help the team. So the Mavs made all the moves to win for the future, then started losing games, not to get Zion, Morant or Barrett, but because they are now built for the future. Also if you think they are purposely losing games this year, than just look at last night’s game against the Rockets. Rockets are ballin’ right now. They should have absolutely destroyed the Mavs yesterday, but the Rockets only won by a point. Mavs clearly didn’t just throw this one away even though they were underdogs by a long shot.

The Mavs may keep their pick this year, but if they do, they will get the player that is right for the team, that meshes well with Luka and KP. He may not be the best player on the board at the time but one thing is for sure, he will mesh with Luka and KP, because that’s who the team is built around and that isn’t changing for a long time.

According to my definition of tanking the only teams that are doing that this year are the Bulls and Knicks.

[Author]

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