I’ve thought a lot about our tanking season. There’s no way around it. And by that I mean truly hardcore tanking. There are five teams we simply can’t out-tank because they’re just far too bad and started tanking early enough. Teams like the Kings, Pacers, Nets, Wizards, and Jazz will unfortunately stay ahead of us.
The Pelicans are a team that actually wants to win because they don’t own their own pick. So I can see them picking up a few wins down the stretch and moving ahead of us. That means we’re really fighting for the sixth spot. We have to be very smart about this and stay behind Memphis and Milwaukee.
Memphis is about to go completely all-in on losing. They’ve traded Bane and JJJ, so it’s clearly all about the rebuild now. They’ll try to lose everything they can. We still play Memphis twice. The Bucks kept Giannis, so I can imagine they’ll try to make a push for the Play-In. That’s very good for us.
Why do I absolutely want us to stay in the Top 6? Because there are exactly six players in this class in whom I see true star potential: Peterson, AJ, Boozer, Caleb, Flemings, and Wagler. If we land one of those guys, our future looks extremely bright. I’m not fully sold on Mikel Brown, Philon, Acuff, or Ament. There are just too many question marks with them. Top 6 is the goal. That alone would be a big achievement.
So dear Mavs, please be smart and don’t mess this up. After this season, you can start winning again. And this time, for good.
17 comments
Problem is that I don’t think we can tank hard enough. I want this franchise to succeed and I understand that sometimes you have to lose for that to happen, but right now we are 3 games ahead of the Jazz and if we can get them above us, maybe we can start talking.
It’s clear watching the team that they’re good enough to compete and randomly win against even high caliber teams. We can’t out tank the lowest teams this year – we will have to hope the lotto favors us again.
“WE WANT AJ!! WE WANT AJ”
edit: i’m pretty fine with most in the top 5 – just thought it had a nice ring as a chant lol
The thought of AJ Dybantsa as a Dallas Maverick gets me very hot and bothered
We will be gifted a top 3 pick for our sacrifice. It is written
Flemings or wagler is the answer, 5 or 6 🙏
>there are exactly six players in this class in whom I see true star potential: Peterson, AJ, Boozer, Caleb, Flemings, and Wagler.
Yes! The guys beyond these aren’t bad and you might be able to find a star after them, but those six are the safest bets to become stars. Disappointing that Brown has been underwhelming. I still have some in him, but it’s not looking good. Also sucks that Quaintance is having trouble coming back from ACL surgery. He has the talent that a center needy team could take him 5th or 6th and push one of Flemings or Wagler down, but not so much now with concerns of his knee.
We have the hardest schedule of the group, but we also play the hardest and are capable of pulling off an upset or 2. We have a 4 game stretch after the break against Pacers, Nets, Kings and Grizzles. We have to do what other tanking teams do during that stretch and pull out an all out tanking job against them.
I hate rooting for these guys to lose because they play so hard, but this is too important for our future. So if it means resting guys like Naji, Christie, Klay, Gafford here and there down the stretch. Or limiting their minutes and not playing them in the 4th.
I mean if Silver really did give Dallas the #1 pick with a 1.8% chance. It’s in his best interest to do it again. To get Cooper some help and build something great. That’s what i’m going with.
Yall don’t really look at the pick odds.
Cooper and Kyrie fit with practically everyone in the top 6. You want to pair Cooper with a dominant 4/5? Cool, here’s Boozer. You want to have a dominant backcourt? Sick, here’s Peterson, Flemings or Wagler. You want a forward tandem of elite playmakers? Here’s Dybantsa.
We’re going to end up with an absolute stud, even if we’re forced to back up a few spots for an Acuff, Mikel Brown or even Koa Peat. This draft class is loaded with starter level talent.
We’re getting the 4th pick book it now.
I’ve been thinking…
I think Boozer ends up #3.
What if we got 3rd and the 4th pick really wanted him.
Would you trade the 3rd pick for the 4th & next year’s frp? Flemings and a potential lottery pick next year, or would you take Boozer?
We need assets but I feel like the top three are on their own tier. Like Atlanta losing out on Luka
This is why I’m upset we didn’t trade Gaff and Naji. They will help us win down the stretch and that’s the opposite of what we want. I think we need to get up to 5 because if we don’t jump into the top 4, then it’s very likely a team behind us will and we drop a spot. Getting to 5 gives us very high odds to draft top 6
Not sure what the Mavs really have to do to tank. They play hard and are just not good. Other than letting Kyrie take all the time he needs to get 100 (meaning the whole season) they really just don’t have enough talent on the floor every night to rise up the rankings much at all. They also have a coach that’s a good motivator and gets his players to play hard but has nothing in the tank when it comes to in game adjustments and late game strategy. Don’t think Mavs fans have to worry about this group making any kind of a run up the rankings
I think we need a guard, I’d love to get Peterson but if we don’t jump in the lottery again I’d be fine with Acuff. As a freshman he’s averaging 20-3-6 on 49-41-77 with a 3:1 AST:TO ratio. He’d be a good playmaking guard to pair with Coop and learn from Kyrie
I hope we got reawarded for not blatantly tanking like these other teams. Mavs really are trying to win games, they just always ends up losing at the end. We ain’t shamelessly resting guys like them.
We would need extra help from Adam bc this year tanking is extreme. 6 teams are gonna be absolutely ass this last 30-32 games.