Game 75: DAL (36-38) @ CHA (24-51)

[LukaMVP]

congrats to the hornets for winning two in a row, and also congrats to mavs for getting one step closer to a top ten talent of the 23' class.

[DanSchwartzgan]

I have to think (hope?) that the franchise has been tanking for some time, and continues to do so. You don't ever give your players a mandate to play bad, but odd rotations and using players in ways that don't fit their strengths are a way to frustrate a team's effort and add baffling losses to keep the tanking goal within arm's reach. Just a thought.

This is my leaning also.  If so, I’ll carry it a step further and double down on my prediction that Turner will be a Mav next season.  The Turner salary was set so that semi-expiring Bertans is a match.  2027 for Turner probably isn’t enough.  #9 or #10 plus the 2027 pick is probably too much.  But, Indy has a ton of draft capital at the end of the first and the beginning of the second this season.  I think the deal is #9/#10 plus 2027 and Bertans for Turner and one of Indy’s late firsts.  All of this assumes the lottery odds hold and Dallas doesn’t move up or get jumped.  You announce the deal at the draft, but you have to wait for Turner’s 23/24 salary to become effective to consummate.

At only 36 wins it looks to me that Dallas either ends up 11th, 10th or 9th depending on what happens with Utah and Chicago.  The Mav’s control their destiny against the 37 win teams and probably can’t catch anyone below them.  There really isn’t a reason for Chicago or Utah to try to lose, so 9th is certainly within reach.  The scary thing is the ‘controls their destiny’ part.  That means they can both achieve their goal and blow it.  Given how things have gone this season, the thing that probably happens is 11th in the draft order and 11th in the West.  The worst of both worlds.

[Branduil]

I don't see where the deliberate tanking is happening. The usual strategy when you tank is to overplay your young guys and backbenchers, but the Mavs haven't been doing that. In fact it's just the opposite, Luka and Kyrie are playing even when not healthy. This isn't tanking, this is the players quitting on the team because their coach is a clown and so is their owner. They lost twice to Charlotte because this team is utterly awful and has no desire to continue playing, not because they're trying to lose.

[Chicagojk]

I don't see where the deliberate tanking is happening. The usual strategy when you tank is to overplay your young guys and backbenchers, but the Mavs haven't been doing that. In fact it's just the opposite, Luka and Kyrie are playing even when not healthy. This isn't tanking, this is the players quitting on the team because their coach is a clown and so is their owner. They lost twice to Charlotte because this team is utterly awful and has no desire to continue playing, not because they're trying to lose.

I agree, they aren't trying to tank.  I have been watching Cuban very closely and if they are trying to lose, he deserves an Oscar.    With the Luka and Kyrie injuries, it would have been very easy to give them more rest too.  Nico was also pretty clear before the first Charlotte game that they were going strong after the playoffs and they felt like they were in a pretty good spot.  

Maybe Turner is moved, but I would bet against it.  Indy is one more good draft pick and a FA away from being a team with a lot to be hopeful for.  Wouldn't it be a kick in the nads to see Indy and Rick get a FA, when we never could get one in Dallas?

[ballsrchr]

I have to think (hope?) that the franchise has been tanking for some time, and continues to do so. You don't ever give your players a mandate to play bad, but odd rotations and using players in ways that don't fit their strengths are a way to frustrate a team's effort and add baffling losses to keep the tanking goal within arm's reach. Just a thought.

This is my leaning also.  If so, I’ll carry it a step further and double down on my prediction that Turner will be a Mav next season.  The Turner salary was set so that semi-expiring Bertans is a match.  2027 for Turner probably isn’t enough.  #9 or #10 plus the 2027 pick is probably too much.  But, Indy has a ton of draft capital at the end of the first and the beginning of the second this season.  I think the deal is #9/#10 plus 2027 and Bertans for Turner and one of Indy’s late firsts.  All of this assumes the lottery odds hold and Dallas doesn’t move up or get jumped.  You announce the deal at the draft, but you have to wait for Turner’s 23/24 salary to become effective to consummate.

At only 36 wins it looks to me that Dallas either ends up 11th, 10th or 9th depending on what happens with Utah and Chicago.  The Mav’s control their destiny against the 37 win teams and probably can’t catch anyone below them.  There really isn’t a reason for Chicago or Utah to try to lose, so 9th is certainly within reach.  The scary thing is the ‘controls their destiny’ part.  That means they can both achieve their goal and blow it.  Given how things have gone this season, the thing that probably happens is 11th in the draft order and 11th in the West.  The worst of both worlds.

I hope you guys are right.  Except maybe for the 11th in draft order.  I'm rooting for Utah and Chicago.

But...I really don't think they've been trying to tank either...

[BigDirk41]

This is my leaning also.  If so, I’ll carry it a step further and double down on my prediction that Turner will be a Mav next season.  The Turner salary was set so that semi-expiring Bertans is a match.  2027 for Turner probably isn’t enough.  #9 or #10 plus the 2027 pick is probably too much.  But, Indy has a ton of draft capital at the end of the first and the beginning of the second this season.  I think the deal is #9/#10 plus 2027 and Bertans for Turner and one of Indy’s late firsts.  All of this assumes the lottery odds hold and Dallas doesn’t move up or get jumped.  You announce the deal at the draft, but you have to wait for Turner’s 23/24 salary to become effective to consummate.

At only 36 wins it looks to me that Dallas either ends up 11th, 10th or 9th depending on what happens with Utah and Chicago.  The Mav’s control their destiny against the 37 win teams and probably can’t catch anyone below them.  There really isn’t a reason for Chicago or Utah to try to lose, so 9th is certainly within reach.  The scary thing is the ‘controls their destiny’ part.  That means they can both achieve their goal and blow it.  Given how things have gone this season, the thing that probably happens is 11th in the draft order and 11th in the West.  The worst of both worlds.

Welcome back Dan S. Good to see you back on here.

[chaparral]

This is my leaning also.  If so, I’ll carry it a step further and double down on my prediction that Turner will be a Mav next season.  The Turner salary was set so that semi-expiring Bertans is a match.  2027 for Turner probably isn’t enough.  #9 or #10 plus the 2027 pick is probably too much.  But, Indy has a ton of draft capital at the end of the first and the beginning of the second this season.  I think the deal is #9/#10 plus 2027 and Bertans for Turner and one of Indy’s late firsts.  All of this assumes the lottery odds hold and Dallas doesn’t move up or get jumped.  You announce the deal at the draft, but you have to wait for Turner’s 23/24 salary to become effective to consummate.

At only 36 wins it looks to me that Dallas either ends up 11th, 10th or 9th depending on what happens with Utah and Chicago.  The Mav’s control their destiny against the 37 win teams and probably can’t catch anyone below them.  There really isn’t a reason for Chicago or Utah to try to lose, so 9th is certainly within reach.  The scary thing is the ‘controls their destiny’ part.  That means they can both achieve their goal and blow it.  Given how things have gone this season, the thing that probably happens is 11th in the draft order and 11th in the West.  The worst of both worlds.

Love the fantasy trade concept of this post.  You always put together really good reads in that department.  You should add your middle name to your user ID and do a "summer of Duffy" post or something.

On the Mavs have been tanking for some time concept.  That kills all hope that I have that Kidd will be gone come this summer.  So, I hope 2 of my favorite posters are wrong on that concept.

Now I'm off to do some research on who the Mavs could get with a 25'ish pick from Indy.

PS to Dan - a sound win by Indy tonight could do wonders for your trade idea above.

[vfromlmf]

It crossed my mind that Luka's demeanor may have something to do with management, or the coach, acknowledging a tank. 

I hear the coach and media reference the box score and say Luka is playing great, while speaking about the team's struggles and conceding something is wrong with Luka off-the-court.

Recently, Luka's shots attempts are up and FG% is down, while his effort on defense is disturbing. He looks engaged at times but gave up a wide open 3 to open the game yesterday. 

Meanwhile, Kidd often deploys lineups that have no hope of rebounding or defending. 

So maybe Dallas is tanking. Of course, when your best option at PF is THJ or Bullock, you don't have the size to compete anyway.

[cow]

Dan!  Missed you, buddy.

[Reunion Mav]

I second the welcome back to Dan. I really appreciate the information and ideas you bring!
No matter what is truly happening behind the scenes or in the locker room I hope that people that matter to Luka and Kyrie are successful reaching out to them. They are both extremely important leaders of a championship team and need to be supported while at the same time challenged as this team goes through this transition as Kyrie calls it. The players can only focus on playing in the most effective winning ways and they themselves have to figure this out. The rest of the guys are attempting to find their new roles on this team. 

Management is not as (insert unnecessary adjectives here) as we very frustrated fans say. As some have pointed out over the years on this site, you can find similar frustrations on maybe 20 teams sites at any given time. It is good to see Dan point out a way that works to continue to address the obvious deficiencies of this roster. This does take time and is frustrating as we lose. 

I hope the losing continues because a quality draft pick could really help. I’m also still hopeful that Christian Wood gets both humbled about his value around the league and somehow gets it defensively perhaps led by Kyrie and does resign for more appropriate money. We need his big man scoring threat but he has to join team leaders in figuring out how he can be part of the big man defensive solution. He is getting more minutes and I have clearly observed inconsistent progress on his defense.

[meistermatze]

The Mavs are not trying to tank because the West is so wide open even I could see them upsetting the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, if we somehow sneak in.

That being said: This team has been horrible to watch as of late. I thought some time together would fix the issues on the court but I am now more than ever convinced, that this franchise is rotten. Cuban is an idiot, I don't see what Nico is bringing to the table and Kidd and his whole staff look incompetent to me to no end.

Luka wants to win but he doesn't want to or can not share the spotlight. Kyrie can play off the ball and does not force things, we know that. Luka ignoring him most of the time is on Luka, period. But I would still trade away anybody not named Luka because he is a genius. I also think maxing out Kyrie, developing Greend and Hardy und signing some role-players gives you a great team next season IF AND ONLY IF something really changes (and I am too far away to know what it is, but it has to be within the team or the front-office and I guess there's multiple things going very wrong).

The funny thing is: Green was our third best palyer throughout the season and him and Hardy showed that they are capable to shoulder a team when both Kyrie and Luka went down. BUT the coach decides to not play them or putting them in and out of the rotation with no plan in sight. Even if you are not tanking, Josh deserves 35 minutes a night and Hardy the Sixth Man spot in the rotation.

It is just baffling to watch. So much talent (even if you look at Wood, Hardaway, Maxi, Reggie, ...) and piss poor results overall. It makes no sense and is SO frustrating. I can't believe I was actually looking for flights from Europe to Dallas for the first round, lol.