The NBA has announced that they are investigating the Dallas Mavericks’ roster choices and game conduct in Friday night’s 115-112 loss against the Chicago Bulls that eliminated the team from Western Conference play-in contention. While they have one more game on the schedule, that will be the end of their 2022-2023 season.
The NBA Is Looking Into The Dallas Mavericks’ Friday Night Game Conduct And Roster Choices
According to ESPN, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said, “The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions.”
Head coach of the Mavs, Jason Kidd, called it an “organizational decision” to rest most of the team’s regular rotation. He also attributed the decision to governor Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison.
Players who sat out the game against the Bulls included Kyrie Irving for right foot injury recovery, Tim Hardaway Jr. for left ankle soreness, Josh Green for rest, Christian Wood for rest and Maxi Kleber for right hamstring injury recovery.
While Luka Doncic played the first 12 minutes and 35 seconds of the game, he sat out the rest of the game. Kidd said the team does not plan for any of the players who sat out on Friday night’s game to play in Sunday’s season finale against the San Antonio Spurs.
Doncic scored 11 points during the first quarter, and during the second quarter, hit his 719th bucket of the season, according to ESPN. Just after that, Doncic committed an intentional foul and checked out of the game, putting an end to his season.
“It’s not so much waving the white flag. It’s decisions sometimes are hard in this business,” Kidd said after the game. “We’re trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward.”
The Mavs broke a tie with the Bulls in the lottery standings with Friday’s loss. According to ESPN, “That’s a critically important distinction for Dallas, which owns the New York Knicks a top-10-protected pick as the final payment for the Kristaps Porzingis trade.”
The Mavs missing the postseason means they could have a top-10 pick in the 2023 draft. If they made it to the postseason, that pick could have been in jeopardy and possibly gone to the Knicks. Since they are finishing the season as one of the 10 worst teams, it’s not likely that the Mavs will fall out of the top 10 in the draft lottery, so they could retain their first-round pick in the draft.
Back in 2018, Cuban paid a $600,000 fine for publicly admitting the Mavs were purposely tanking. On Wednesday night, he said that “of course I understand” the thought process of fans that protecting that lottery position is the smartest strategy.
“The guys don’t want to do that,” he said. “Players aren’t going to do that. Players don’t do that.”
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Peace And Leadership
On Saturday, Irving took to Twitter to explain he’s protecting his peace after the season’s collapse.
He shared a gif of Squirtle, a Pokémon character, smelling a flower that reads, “When you realize that you can’t & aren’t obligated to please everyone and stop burdening yourself under absurd expectations and finally feel at peace.”
Irving joined the Mavs in early February when the team was 29-26 and in fifth place in the Western Conference. After the trade, the team went 9-17 and 8-13 in games that Irving played.
Former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway Sr., the father of Mavs guard Tim Hardaway Jr., recently called out Irving and Doncic for lack of leadership. He said that while they are both great scorers, they are not leaders.
“It’s not Kyrie’s fault. Everybody wants to put it on Kyrie Irving. It’s not Kyrie’s fault. Kyrie came to a situation where they thought he was going to be the savior or take them to the promised land or to the next level and he hasn’t,” Hardaway Sr, said on “The Carton Show.” “They’re missing a leader out there. Luka is not a leader. Kyrie isn’t a leader. Jalen Brunson was a leader.”
“That trade wasn’t for them, what isn’t broken doesn’t need to be fixed. They’re missing a leader out there. Luka is not a leader, Kyrie is not a leader.”
— @HardawaySr on the Mavs: pic.twitter.com/5IfbQHmHYg
— The Carton Show (@TheCartonShow) April 5, 2023
Hardaway Jr, however, had something to add about what his father said. While speaking to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and “Dallas Morning News” reporter Callie Caplan, he said, “I didn’t wake up this morning thinking that I had to focus in on this topic, but it is my dad. I love him dearly. He’s been in the league for so many years now, so just for him to say that, I disagree with it 1000%.”
He continued by saying that Doncic is a leader and he wanted to set the record straight.
“I’ve come out numerous times and told you all how much leadership Luka has shown throughout my whole entire time here in Dallas. He shows it on and off the floor, and a lot of the situations that we’ve been in as a team, we wouldn’t be in without him. So, let’s just set that straight.”
