After having high expectations at the start of the season, the Dallas Mavericks don't make the playoffs.
After making the conference finals last year, Mavericks fans had high hopes for this season. Unfortunately, the Mavericks are going to end the season below 10th in the Western Conference meaning they won't even make the play-in tournament.
Luka Dončić:
Considering the Mavericks' record, it's hard to believe what an amazing season Luka Dončić had.
This season Luka is playing some of the best basketball of his career, and was one of the top MVP candidates.
Dončić is averaging an impressive 33.1 Points, 8.2 Assists, and 8.7 Rebounds, making a solid 50% of his shots.
Unfortunately, Luka isn't getting much help from his teammates. The Mavericks lose almost 70% of the games that Luka doesn't play. This season The Mavericks have lost 10 games where Luka has scored 35+ points. Luka also had four games with over 40 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds that the Mavericks still managed to lose.
Kyrie Irving:
This season the Mavericks traded for 8x All-Star Kyrie Irving. Irving has statistically been a great addition to the Mavericks, averaging 26 Points, 6 assists, and 5 Rebounds for the team.
The problem is that the trade didn't have as much of an impact as the Mavericks had hoped. The Mavericks currently have a record of 5 wins and 11 losses when Both Dončić and Irving play, and still an overall losing record of 9-17 since trading for Kyrie.
The Mavericks Giving Up:
In order to even have a chance at making the Play-in tournament the Mavericks had to win their next 2 games, which they clearly gave up on.
Before their must-win game against the Bulls, the Mavericks announced that key players Kyrie Irving, Josh Green, Tim Hardaway Jr, Maxi Kleber, and Christian Wood would all not be playing. They also had their best player Luka Doncic only play the first quarter of the game.
If the Mavericks had tried and played their best players, they could have won this game. The Bulls have already secured a spot in the Play-in tournament, so they were resting their 2 best players Demar Derozan and Zach Lavine.
Mavericks Tanking:
Back in 2018, when the Mavericks had a record of 18-40, Owner Mark Cuban said on a podcast "I'm probably not supposed to say this, but, we aren't competing for the playoffs. Look, losing is our best option.'"
Mark Cuban was referring to the fact that since he believed the Mavericks were not going to make the playoffs, they were better off continuing to lose so that they could get a higher pick in the next NBA draft.
This is not exactly the same situation as this season, but it shows that when the Mavericks organization doesn't believe the team can have a good chance in the playoffs, they are willing to just give up for a better draft pick, which is what they did this season even though they still had a chance.