“The problem is that the Mavs have embarrassed the NBA”
ESPN journalist Tim Bontemps believes that things could get serious between the NBA and the Texan franchise: “They have mocked the play in.”
There could be repercussions for the Mavericks, who reached the end of the season without even to trying to be in the playoffs via the play in route. Instead, they have been try to lock down their chances of keeping their draft pick, which they could do if they remain in the top 10 after the lottery. If they fall any lower, it will belong to the Knicks, a debt incurred when Kristaps Porzingis was traded to Dallas.
Many teams resort to tanking - intentionally losing games with the hope of gaining high draft picks but the Mavs have ended up taking it to an extreme. There has been no attempt to hide their disinterest in the last games - when they still had options to be in the play in. And also because of what the chief protagonists have said publicly - stating the obvious, that the franchise prioritized its accounts for the draft and the market. They saw no advantage in trying to be in the playoffs through the play in. Doncic himself assured that he wanted to try to go as far as he could while there were options, but his team had other plans - both for him and for the end of the regular season.
Ridicule
Given the notoriety of the Mavs’ case and the media storm it has caused, the NBA has said that it will investigate what happened during those last dates of the regular season calendar. According to ESPN journalist Tim Bontemps, the reason is that the franchise went too far, holding out several key players in the penultimate game: “The reason this is being investigated & the reason this thing matters is because the Dallas Mavericks embarrassed the NBA... They have made a mockery of the play-in tournament.” he posted on Twitter.
Sure, it’s a dismal end to a season that started with a lot of ambition in Texas after the team’s trip to the Western Conference finals last year. But this year, Jason Kidd has been much worse as coach and the team has shown enormous deficiencies, topped by the transfer of Kyrie Irving, which effectively wrecked the capability of rotating specialists in key roles without being able to extract talent from its stars in a team without rebounding or defense. A recipe for disaster. Now, Kyrie’s contract is up and Luka Doncic has assured that he is “happy” in Dallas but that “obviously” there are things that have to change...