{"id":701732,"date":"2026-04-06T17:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701732\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T17:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:33:16","slug":"nba-lottery-watch-the-mavericks-final-push-to-the-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701732\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Lottery Watch: the Mavericks\u2019 final push to the draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are four games from the end of this season. You may be surprised to learn that the season began in October and not last February, a time that\u2019s often felt like one continuous trudge through drama and losing for 15 months. The light, and absolutely spectacular rookie season from Cooper Flagg, has maintained its energy all the way to the end. Flagg\u2019s 96 points between Friday and Sunday\u2019s games<\/a> were a snapshot of a more than worthy rookie of the year campaign, and should make Mavericks fans excited to head into next fall. Pair with that the soon-to-be-drafting of his future running mate this summer, and this new era suddenly feels fresher.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why we\u2019re here. At NBA Lottery Watch we\u2019ve tracked the lottery maneuverings since the all-star break as the Mavericks wait with the other losing teams to see where the ping pong balls fall on May 10, determining where teams will draft this summer. Let\u2019s dive in as we walk the final week of the season.<\/p>\n

We warned in last week\u2019s edition<\/a> that there are some sticky moments at the end of this schedule. And while the Mavericks did plenty of losing, Sunday\u2019s win made an impact<\/a> as the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans both lost. On the week as a whole those two teams went 0-4 while the Mavericks went 1-3. Those results left Dallas falling from sixth to eighth in the lottery order. Does a roughly 8% difference in a shot at a top four spot really matter? No, probably not. The real impact, as we\u2019ve said before, is when teams behind you jump forward, leaving you falling further back toward the fringes of this draft\u2019s depth.<\/p>\n

That said, even with these teams having nothing real to play for entering the postseason, there are a few key games remaining that could impact the lottery draw odds on May 10.<\/p>\n

Dallas has the toughest remaining schedule of the three teams, although the Clippers are really the only team that is fighting for playoff positioning \u2014 Phoenix and San Antonio are all but locked in their spot. But it\u2019s the other two facing the Utah Jazz that is worth keeping track of. The Jazz have lost 13 of their last 14, and have been so aggressive in their losing that they\u2019ve actually moved up to the fourth spot ahead of the Sacramento Kings. Hard to imagine they\u2019ll let up now \u2014 so that game for the Pelicans and Grizzlies really leave the Mavericks their primary opportunity to move back up in the standings.<\/p>\n

If that doesn\u2019t happen, we\u2019ll have to cross fingers that the consistent effort of this team, and their refusal to sit core players at the end of the season builds enough positive karma to send the Mavericks forward in the draw.<\/p>\n

Each week we\u2019ll take one spin around the block at tankathon.com<\/a> and see where the chips fall. And the basketball gods shown down on the ethical tank this week. For the first time in the two months we\u2019ve been hosting lottery watch the Dallas Mavericks jumped seven spots to take the number one pick, for what would be the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

Complete chaos across the board on this one, to a completely unrealistic degree. The Indiana Pacers are the only team to keep their top four spot, while everyone else went tumbling backward. The Mavericks leapt forward with the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. This image once again paints the picture of why positioning as high as possible matters in the event you end up falling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are four games from the end of this season. You may be surprised to learn that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,42852,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-701732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-mavericks-draft","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116358965272521513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}