The pick is top 5 protected.

Tanking could take the form of playing more Dirk, letting Brunson get more minutes and put in more learning oppty's.

Otherwise, it's not like the guys they acquired from the Knicks are untalented stiffs. They get bad press because of their contracts and they are on the Knicks. Neither of which means they can't actually contribute to winning games (that's my fairly uneducated view).

I'm all in for the tank. Would be epic to keep the pick.

Yea keeping the pick would be amazing. Just start playing dirk 25 mins per game. That would both be awesome and have the result of helping us tank. We won't be able to get to a bottom 5 record bc the east teams are so bad. But we can at least help our odds of getting a top 5 pick a little.

Edit never mind. Let dirk play huge minutes and let him go out in style!

chris1515 said:

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The pick is top 5 protected.

Tanking could take the form of playing more Dirk, letting Brunson get more minutes and put in more learning oppty's.

Otherwise, it's not like the guys they acquired from the Knicks are untalented stiffs. They get bad press because of their contracts and they are on the Knicks. Neither of which means they can't actually contribute to winning games (that's my fairly uneducated view).

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Hardaway is definitely a quality player.

Doncic with 18 in the first quarter.

You might want to tune in to the game. Evidently, there is a large Slovenian community in Cleveland and Luka is putting on a show.

Doncic with 28 at the half

Luka sending a message after that all star snub

M.C. Swag said:

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With DJ gone, Dirk is already slated for increased minutes. So I wouldn't worry about. And I cant stress enough how bad of an idea it would be to tank. Rick just might physically combust and Luka will not look kindly on losing. This team should win as many games as they can.

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I can't believe some bozos on here are talking about tanking. Really?

The draft coming up isn't deep and the only "must have" player is Zion. The pick is top 5 protected. I'd hate to see this team get the #2- #5 pick then have them scramble to try and figure out what to do with it.

You guys have to take into consideration that we owe 3 first round draft picks to other teams. Unless the draft coming up is historically good or unusually strong, it's best to not let that stuff linger and pay off the debts ASAP.

Good road win tonight. The goal for this season should be to have our players continue to improve ( Brunson, kleber, finney), win some games, and pay Atlanta back for the doncic trade. The only way you can go wrong with that approach is if the mavs were to get the #1 and get Zion. That is highly unlikely and not worth the gamble.

I think this should be the last year for a long long time that the Mavs will even have a chance to draft near the top. I'm on board with tanking if they so choose. Either you should compete for the title or the first pick. Flopping around in the middle of the pack has no reward. I think you can do that and still develop and instill the right instincts in your young guys.

Nice win tonight.

No tanking. Start figuring out how to win with this crew even if Porzingis isnt ready. The east is garbage and the mavs suck at the lottery. The only thing tanking will do is improve the hawk's pick

chris1515 said:

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I think this should be the last year for a long long time that the Mavs will even have a chance to draft near the top. I'm on board with tanking if they so choose. Either you should compete for the title or the first pick. Flopping around in the middle of the pack has no reward. I think you can do that and still develop and instill the right instincts in your young guys.

Nice win tonight.

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I think the thought is doncic and Porzingis will finally make Dallas appealing to free agents. Nobody wanted to play with an over the hill dirk, but players should want to come to Dallas and play with 2 all stars who are both under the age of 24 with bright futures ahead of them.

You'll probably see the mavs front office treat doncic as their new dirk while they constantly trade all of their draft picks and sign free agents when the opportunity arises in an effort to surround doncic with talent.


The reality is that this organization doesn't like drafting. A bust can really set you back and there's only a few "sure things" in any given draft. The Mavericks never have the draft position to get those guys, so tanking clearly isn't worth it.

Grapesoda2525 said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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With DJ gone, Dirk is already slated for increased minutes. So I wouldn't worry about. And I cant stress enough how bad of an idea it would be to tank. Rick just might physically combust and Luka will not look kindly on losing. This team should win as many games as they can.

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I can't believe some bozos on here are talking about tanking. Really?

The draft coming up isn't deep and the only "must have" player is Zion. The pick is top 5 protected. I'd hate to see this team get the #2- #5 pick then have them scramble to try and figure out what to do with it.

You guys have to take into consideration that we owe 3 first round draft picks to other teams. Unless the draft coming up is historically good or unusually strong, it's best to not let that stuff linger and pay off the debts ASAP.

Good road win tonight. The goal for this season should be to have our players continue to improve ( Brunson, kleber, finney), win some games, and pay Atlanta back for the doncic trade. The only way you can go wrong with that approach is if the mavs were to get the #1 and get Zion. That is highly unlikely and not worth the gamble.

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You sound less than intelligent.

The reason why tanking is valuable this year is bc we shouldn't be near the top of the draft again after this year for the next decade. So tank and hope you get lucky.

The Mavs have a better chance of making the playoffs this year than retaining their pick, at best they'lll get a 36% chance of getting a pick.

They should be trying their damndest to make the playoffs and build confidence in Porzingis' mind that this is where he wants to be long term.

Tanking is a terrible idea.

%0 chance this team is tanking as long as Luka is healthy

mavsfan4ever said:

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Grapesoda2525 said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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With DJ gone, Dirk is already slated for increased minutes. So I wouldn't worry about. And I cant stress enough how bad of an idea it would be to tank. Rick just might physically combust and Luka will not look kindly on losing. This team should win as many games as they can.

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I can't believe some bozos on here are talking about tanking. Really?

The draft coming up isn't deep and the only "must have" player is Zion. The pick is top 5 protected. I'd hate to see this team get the #2- #5 pick then have them scramble to try and figure out what to do with it.

You guys have to take into consideration that we owe 3 first round draft picks to other teams. Unless the draft coming up is historically good or unusually strong, it's best to not let that stuff linger and pay off the debts ASAP.

Good road win tonight. The goal for this season should be to have our players continue to improve ( Brunson, kleber, finney), win some games, and pay Atlanta back for the doncic trade. The only way you can go wrong with that approach is if the mavs were to get the #1 and get Zion. That is highly unlikely and not worth the gamble.

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You sound less than intelligent.

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Yeah ok buddy

Let's tank and teach doncic how to lose. What do you think Porzingis would think of that?

He just left a woefully inept team. The knicks haven't been good since Patrick Ewing. The last thing Porzingis wants to see is a team that looks like the one he just left and did all he could to get away from.

Good luck retaining him with that strategy.

Tanking makes no sense at this point of the season considering the chances if a top 5 pick for this team is super low. Might as well go for it and screw atl in the process out of a second top 10 pick

Should we tank? Let's discuss.

When it comes to tanking, I think Rick, Luka, and Porzingis are all smart enough to understand the situation. I think you can still tank while maintaining the same level of focus and intensity you need for winning. You're just shifting your primary objective.

You play some lineups that are in the wrong side of the plus/minus stats, so that some younger players have more development opportunities. You find some plays that Luka and others might struggle with, and you run those over and over. In practice you spend more time on player development than in preparing for a specific opponent.

We've been playing the wrong lineups all season because Rick was held hostage to Wes & DJ & HBs contracts. That's not the case anymore and I'm telling you that Rick will NOT "force losing lineups" to tank. It's not going to happen. This discussion is insane. The Mavs may lose some games but it will not be because Rick is withholding his best players or rotations.

People really think we're going to tank? We're not going to have a 1st round pick. Last year our pick was #5, and we had 24 wins all year. This team has 24 wins right now. So we'd basically have to lose every single game from here out AND get lucky with the draw so we don't get bumped out of the top 5. No way anyone in the Mavs organization is willing to be that awful when it could easily be for nothing. Giving away 3 first round picks is the clearest statement that you're going to find that this team is done tanking

They're only about 2 games back of having around a 30% chance of a top 4 pick. They may wind up there even with trying to win games. If you get to the last 5 games of the season and the #7-10 worst spots are tight, I wouldn't mind seeing some losses.

Quote:

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So we'd basically have to lose every single game from here out AND get lucky with the draw so we don't get bumped out of the top 5.

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They could stay exactly where they are in the standing right now (11th worst team) and get lucky with the draw to keep the top 5. Right now it's a 9.4% chance of landing a top 4. With Milwaukee, Portland, Houston, Utah, Denver, and LAC coming up, those odds could easily bump up into the 20% range even with playing hard.

They have two wins more than the Pistons right now. The Pistons have a 20% chance of picking in the top 4.

Orlando also has two fewer wins than the Mavs and they have more than a 30% shot at a top 4.

http://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

I don't think some of you understand how tanking works. You all were also probably against full out tanking last year at some point and look how that turned out. You don't tell the players to lose games. You don't call bad plays to put them in a bad spot. If we can get a 30% chance at a top 5 pick we should absolutely do it. Hell, all you have to do is start playing dirk more minutes.

I agree that we probably won't. But there is no reason not to. Getting a top 5 pick and then sending a much higher pick to Atlanta next year would set us up in s great position. Luka Porzingis and a top 5 pick is sick.

Yes, the odds shift pretty dramatically from the #7-11 slots.

Grapesoda2525 said:

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mavsfan4ever said:

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Grapesoda2525 said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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With DJ gone, Dirk is already slated for increased minutes. So I wouldn't worry about. And I cant stress enough how bad of an idea it would be to tank. Rick just might physically combust and Luka will not look kindly on losing. This team should win as many games as they can.

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I can't believe some bozos on here are talking about tanking. Really?

The draft coming up isn't deep and the only "must have" player is Zion. The pick is top 5 protected. I'd hate to see this team get the #2- #5 pick then have them scramble to try and figure out what to do with it.

You guys have to take into consideration that we owe 3 first round draft picks to other teams. Unless the draft coming up is historically good or unusually strong, it's best to not let that stuff linger and pay off the debts ASAP.

Good road win tonight. The goal for this season should be to have our players continue to improve ( Brunson, kleber, finney), win some games, and pay Atlanta back for the doncic trade. The only way you can go wrong with that approach is if the mavs were to get the #1 and get Zion. That is highly unlikely and not worth the gamble.

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You sound less than intelligent.

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Yeah ok buddy

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I'm not your buddy, friend.

hph6203 said:

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The Mavs have a better chance of making the playoffs this year than retaining their pick, at best they'lll get a 36% chance of getting a pick.

They should be trying their damndest to make the playoffs and build confidence in Porzingis' mind that this is where he wants to be long term.

Tanking is a terrible idea.

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We currently have a 4 % chance of making playoffs.

And New Orleans has an 11% chance, do you believe those numbers accurately reflect each teams odds of making the playoffs? As the season goes on some teams will rise, some will fall and the Mavs are only 4 games in the loss column out of the playoffs with 30 to go.

The Clippers, Kings and Mavericks are the only teams that don't have their first rounder, everyone else has free reign to tank to their heart's content. Winning puts you in a place to improve your chances of signing Porzingis, improves your chances of signing quality free agents, improves the outlook of your team more than a 36% chance of retaining the pick.

This convo has ran its course. The Mavs record will be what it will be. I don't think anyone outside of Zion is worth tanking for and potentially alienating Luka/KP and disrespecting Dirks last season. Some feel differently.

All of that aside, I'm fascinated to see how the new players fit within this team and what Dallas does with Powell and HB. Rumors are circulating that both will be gone by the deadline as Dallas is looking to free up their money for cap space this season.

hph6203 said:

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And New Orleans has an 11% chance, do you believe those numbers accurately reflect each teams odds of making the playoffs? As the season goes on some teams will rise, some will fall and the Mavs are only 4 games in the loss column out of the playoffs with 30 to go.

The Clippers, Kings and Mavericks are the only teams that don't have their first rounder, everyone else has free reign to tank to their heart's content. Winning puts you in a place to improve your chances of signing Porzingis, improves your chances of signing quality free agents, improves the outlook of your team more than a 36% chance of retaining the pick.

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If we end up with Zion, I'd happily come back and admit I'm wrong.

Probably less then a 1% chance of getting him tho.

Just let the guys improve as much as they can. Win as many games as possible. Try to show luka and Porzingis that you actually want to win.

It's not that hard guys. Really.

M.C. Swag said:

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This convo has ran its course. The Mavs record will be what it will be. I don't think anyone outside of Zion is worth tanking for and potentially alienating Luka/KP and disrespecting Dirks last season. Some feel differently.

All of that aside, I'm fascinated to see how the new players fit within this team and what Dallas does with Powell and HB. Rumors are circulating that both will be gone by the deadline as Dallas is looking to free up their money for cap space this season.

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I'd be shocked if Barnes and Powell are gone too.

I wonder what the Mavericks long term plan is. It might have been easier to hold onto cap space until 2020.

The Lakers and knicks are 2 big market teams who have cap space this upcoming offseason and they will be hungry.

Do you guys think they should try to bring dirk back next year? Having him around might help convince Porzingis to stay long term.

Grapesoda2525 said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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This convo has ran its course. The Mavs record will be what it will be. I don't think anyone outside of Zion is worth tanking for and potentially alienating Luka/KP and disrespecting Dirks last season. Some feel differently.

All of that aside, I'm fascinated to see how the new players fit within this team and what Dallas does with Powell and HB. Rumors are circulating that both will be gone by the deadline as Dallas is looking to free up their money for cap space this season.

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I'd be shocked if Barnes and Powell are gone too.

I wonder what the Mavericks long term plan is. It might have been easier to hold onto cap space until 2020.

The Lakers and knicks are 2 big market teams who have cap space this upcoming offseason and they will be hungry.

Do you guys think they should try to bring dirk back next year? Having him around might help convince Porzingis to stay long term.

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Long term, HB is definitely gone so I don't have an issue with moving him sooner rather than later. Just a matter of selling at the price. I like Powell but he's fairly replaceable.

Dirk can come back if he wants (obviously), but I think he's done. His interview with Zach Lowe the other day made it sound like he's pretty frustrated with how the season has gone (at his own health, not with the team). He said it takes 2 hrs for him to stretch out before he can even begin to lift or workout and that process is really grinding on him. Either way, I don't see his decision to stay or go affecting Porzingis. Dirk will still be around the franchise going forward in some capacity and Luka is more than enough reason for KP to stick around.