The Dallas Mavericks are in the home stretch, fully in rebuild mode for the final 28 games of their season. For the last few years at MMB we’ve wrapped up each week with a quick glance at the Power Rankings among national outlets to see how they view the Mavericks from week to week. That, for now, is not necessary. The Mavericks aren’t playing meaningful basketball, not for the playoffs. Instead their meaningful basketball centers solely on the development of Cooper Flagg and the other young players in the rotation. They announced this week that Kyrie Irving will continue rehab and will not return until next season. Now the team gets reps for the young guys, and organically position themselves as best they can for the NBA Draft lottery draw. Don’t call it a tank! (you can call it a tank). Development matters first, getting good reps for the young guys while letting the wins and losses fall as they may.
Let’s take a look at where the Mavericks are as of this writing, and what happens next.
Lottery standings
The Mavericks (currently 19-35) are seventh in the lottery standings, two games back of the Utah Jazz in sixth and 8.5 games back of the Sacramento Kings. The Memphis Grizzlies are currently eighth behind Dallas — just 1.5 games back.
Utah and Memphis will be teams to take a hard look at if you find yourselves scoreboard watching on any given night. All of these teams, as covered nationally at a very loud decibel, are going all in on collecting losses. The reality of Dallas “catching” teams like the Washington Wizards or Brooklyn Nets in fourth or fifth is not likely — both teams are a full four games ahead of the Mavs. They’re bunched up with the Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Pelicans. So expect plenty of shuffling in front of Dallas in the coming weeks.
If the lottery were today, the Mavericks would have a 31.9% chance at a top four pick (7.5% at the top pick). Their top four chance moves up or down a full 5% if they moved in front of Utah or behind Memphis.
Weekly schedule
- Dallas Mavericks: @ Minnesota Timberwolves, @ Indiana Pacers, @ Brooklyn Nets, vs. Sacramento Kings
- Utah Jazz: @ Memphis Grizzlies, @ Houston Rockets, vs. New Orleans Pelicans
- Memphis Grizzlies: vs. Utah Jazz, @ Miami Heat, vs. Sacramento Kings, vs. Golden State Warriors
One magic spin
Each week we’ll take one spin around the block at tankathon.com and see where the chips fall. Our first inaugural spin was chaos. The Mavericks fell back one spot to eighth with the Milwaukee Bucks jumping nine spots to first — but because of a previous trade where the Atlanta Hawks get the best selection between Milwaukee and New Orleans, the Hawks are at one. The Bucks were able to then take on the New Orleans pick.
Let the games begin.
