"Tanking" is still a dirty business

What Mavericks don't want to see: Team owner Mark Cuban, Luca Doncic and Kyrie 
Irving sitting togeter during another Dallas loss. (Getty Images photos)

      This blog usually focuses on the positive, trying to tell what we think is a good story.

      Not much positive about today's tale because I am writing about the state of the Dallas Mavericks.

    And that state -- pardon me -- is a bunch of crap.

     Love the team, and love the owner. Mark Cuban -- my opinion -- is one of the best team owners in sports. Or he was until a week or so ago.

      The Mavericks "tanked," no question. 

      Here is the definition I had in a blog dated July 14, 2015, on which the title was: "Tanking -- it's a dirty word."

         ("Tanking" -- losing games intentionally or not trying to bring in the best players and have the best roster possible. This, in order to finish near the bottom of the league and get a potential top-three or so draft choice next year to begin rebuilding the franchise.)

      This is the Mavericks, 2023. They purposely didn't field their best lineups to try to win games. Didn't care if they won; they actually didn't mind losing.

      For the April 7 "must-win" game against the Chicago Bulls, the Mavericks sat out five regular players and Luka Doncic, who is one of the NBA's most talented players, was in the game for 13 minutes, then sat out the rest.

      Those Mavs who did play worked hard, let for much of the first 2 1/2 quarters, and then wilted as the Bulls won 115-112.

     That sealed Dallas' non-playoff fate. Wait 'till next season. 

     Need to qualify this: I no longer care for the NBA. Haven't watched a game all season -- several seasons, actually -- and occasionally only had a game on for a few seconds when the TV accidentally went there.

     Still root for the Mavericks, but not much. I know Doncic is a wonderful, amazing offensive player. But he's too big a showoff, too big a whiner, a collector of technical fouls, for me.

      And, as with most of the current Mavericks, defense is a foreign language.

     This season's team went from a 31-26 record and fourth place in the Western Conference to a 7-18 finish after the huge trade for Kyrie Irving. Six games below .500 adds up to 11th place in the West ... and so long.

      When Doncic and Irving were in the lineup together, they were 5-11. Considering that Luka averaged 32.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8 assists a game, and Irving averaged 27 points and 6 assists in 20 games, that doesn't say much for the rest of the bunch. 

     Still, they were on the edge of the playoffs until ...

     But what Cuban and almost-new general manager Nico Harrison (nice first name, pal) did at the end of this NBA season just sucks.

        But to sit out five regular players -- purportedly for injuries and "rest" -- and then limit Doncic to a mere 15 minutes of play in the regular season's final game, with a glimmer of hope for winning and making the playoffs just isn't what sports should be about.

     The NBA "investigated" -- as if that was necessary -- and just announced a $750,000 fine for the Mavericks. Chump change for Cuban. Yeah, three-quarters of a million dollars.

       And it's not the first time we've had this scenario. Just hinting at it in 2015 prompted my blog then; a Metroplex columnist or two, and the radio sports talk show hosts suggested it then, maybe because Cuban mentioned it "off the record."

     Then in 2018, Cuban again raised the possibility -- on the record -- and the Association hit the Mavericks and him with a $600,000 fine.

    Here is a link to what I wrote in 2015: 

     https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2015/07/tanking-thats-dirty-word.html

     Said then that I could not imagine the Mavs' coach, Rick Carlisle, would have anything to do with not trying to win games.

     Carlisle took his NBA championship credentials back to the Indiana Pacers a couple of years ago -- one of my guesses is that he found Doncic hard to handle -- and so it is Jason Kidd who I guess had to follow orders and go along with the "tanking plan." 

    Kidd said "the organization" -- Cuban and Harrison -- decided to sit the half-dozen players.

     "It's not so much waving the white flag," Kidd said, according to a USA Today story. "It's decisions sometimes are hard in this business. We're trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward."

      So they are hoping for a higher draft pick, a great draw in the NBA lottery. No guarantee of that, so I question if missing the playoffs is worth it.

     And maybe this is fitting because this Mavericks team was a loser. Let's put Irving in that category (despite an NBA championship in his history when he was teamed with LeBron James in Cleveland).

      But Irving has been a malcontent at every stop. Here is a guy suspended by the NBA or his team for refusing the covid vaccinations and for endorsing an anti-semitic movie and not apologizing for doing so. 

     You'd think Cuban might've been leery of having his GM make the trade for Irving. But talent rules in the NBA, and Cuban -- always brash and innovative and, yes, fun -- is unafraid of taking chances.

      At least he kept an open mind for the trade. Then he closed that mind and had his team give less than its best effort. 

      He is a billionaire who is one of the most-fined people in NBA history. 

      Meanwhile, Irving is a free agent and the Mavericks hope to re-sign him, and hope that he and Doncic -- who might grow up one day -- will team with the No. 1 draft pick they'll add as a reward for missing the playoffs. (What are the chances?)

      Knowing Irving's past, it would be a shock if he plays in a Mavericks uniform again. 

      My view on all this: No tanks.