Countless fans bashed the Dallas Mavericks for their rash and brazen decision to trade Luka Doncic at February’s deadline. It’s what came after, however, that derailed the Mavericks’ season, which ended after a play-in loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Things got so bad that league Commissioner Adam Silver considered it a miracle that the Mavericks didn’t commit to tanking down the stretch of the season.
“We call it a lottery, and I think that sometimes because we call it a lottery, people think it must have been a one-in-a-million chance that Dallas was gonna win. Remember, the worst-performing team had a 14% chance of winning, which means there was an 86% chance they wouldn’t get it,” said Silver on Breakfast Ball. “Dallas had roughly a 2% chance. 2% is 2%, so it’s gonna happen. When people say ‘Therefore the lottery is broken,’ I have a different view, which is that the purpose of the lottery is to disincentivize teams from tanking. So here you have a team that they were trying to win. Then Kyrie got injured, and Anthony Davis got injured. So they found themselves in the lottery. Odds are odds, and that’s how it turned out.”
To trade Luka Doncic in the prime of his career was a bold and risky move that many fans believe was a major mistake. Teams spend decades waiting for a player like Doncic, and the Mavericks traded him without any kind of bidding war to maximize their return.
With Anthony Davis, they planned to try and prove everyone wrong by winning the championship. Unfortunately, injuries got in the way almost immediately. Davis got injured in his Mavericks debut, while Kyrie Irving would later suffer a catastrophic ACL tear. The Mavs, as a shell of themselves, hobbled into the postseason as the 10th seed before their play-in defeat.
Despite some calling for the Mavericks to shut it down, they battled until the very end, and Anthony Davis gave his all trying to pull his team out of the gutter. While the Mavs were able to qualify for the final play-in spot, the injuries and obstacles ultimately proved too much for them to endure.
Still, as tough as that last stretch was for Dallas, it came with a shocking surprise: the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft. By winning the draft lottery (which some accused of being rigged), the Mavericks will have a chance to find another star by either trading the pick or using it to draft Duke prospect Cooper Flagg.
Suddenly, the Mavericks have hope again, and they have someone new to build their future around. Going into the summer, the important thing now for Dallas is how they use this offseason to support their star-studded core.
With Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, and Klay Thompson, the Mavs could have a solid, star-studded core, but they’ll need plenty of help from other sources to lead their team to playoff success. Their decisions over the next few months will have major implications on their place in the upcoming title race, but we know that they’ll be trying to win regardless of who they sign.
