{"id":715496,"date":"2026-04-22T01:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715496\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:01:45","slug":"mavericks-season-finale-win-over-bulls-could-cost-them-elite-nba-draft-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715496\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks’ Season Finale Win Over Bulls Could Cost Them Elite NBA Draft Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> foolishly won the final game of the season against the Chicago Bulls, which pushed them into a tie with the New Orleans Pelicans for the 7th-worst record in the NBA. Any tie in the lottery, even if one team won a head-to-head series, is broken by a random drawing. <\/p>\n

That random drawing did not go in favor of the Mavs. They dropped to the 8th-best odds of landing the first overall pick, and while the difference between 7th and 8th isn’t a huge margin as far as the chances to win the first pick or jump into the top four, it does severely alter their chances of falling further in the draft. <\/p>\n

For a season to be as bad as it was this year for the Mavericks, going just 26-56, ending up with a pick outside the top 8 could be disastrous. Here is a breakdown of their odds to land each pick they can. <\/p>\n

1. 6.7%
2. 7.0%
3. 7.4%
4. 7.8%
8. 32.9%
9. 31.1%
10. 6.6%
11. 0.4%
12. >0.0%<\/p>\n

Essentially, the Mavericks have a 38.1% chance of not selecting in the top 8. With how this draft sets up, that may not be where you want to end up. It may not be worth worrying about until the lottery results come in, but if the Mavs somehow end up with the 10th pick, this would be a good reason why. <\/p>\n

\"Alabama<\/p>\n

Mar 27, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Labaron Philon Jr. (0) looks on after a Sweet Sixteen game of the Midwest Regional of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the Michigan Wolverines at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Draft Prospects to Keep an Eye on in the 8-10 Range<\/p>\n

If the Mavericks don’t move up or stay in the same range, there are a few prospects to keep an eye on. <\/p>\n

One is Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr., whose back injury may scare some teams off, not wanting to risk a high pick on him. The Mavericks may not have the choice because he is arguably the most talented guard in the class if the medicals check out. He can be a dynamic scorer and shooter, averaged nearly 5 assists per game, and has great size at 6’5″. <\/p>\n

Another is Labaron Philon, who averaged 22 PPG for Alabama on great efficiency. Some people have him going in the late lottery, but he’s an exceptional player. I have him much higher on the board than consensus. If he’s on the board in this range, Dallas should sprint the card to the podium. <\/p>\n

Some other options should be Arizona guard Brayden Burries and Tennessee wing Nate Ament (no thank you). <\/p>\n

Sign up to our free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on X<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks foolishly won the final game of the season against the Chicago Bulls, which pushed them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-715496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116445666190983553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715496","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=715496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}