The Dallas Mavericks and their fans are looking ahead to the NBA Draft lottery, but another historically dominant team might beat them to the top pick.
The Dallas Mavericks are two games away from their season being officially over, but most fans checked out the moment they traded away Anthony Davis (if not long before that), signalling that they had no intention to win games this season.
With a solid core headlined by Cooper Flagg, the addition of a top draft pick in 2026 and the return of Kyrie Irving should propel Dallas back to relevancy, if not contention, in the next few seasons.
For now, fans will have to wait and hope that the ping pong balls of the NBA Draft Lottery are friendly. In the last two years, the Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks both won the top pick from the play-in tournament, and fans are expecting the same thing to happen this season.
However, Dallas isn't the frontrunner in the league-wide "conspiracy."
Warriors Could Rob Mavericks of Draft Asset
Dallas has an 8.2 percent chance of landing the top pick. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has disavowed tanking at every opportunity, and while we aren't saying the lottery is rigged, it does seem dubious that the Hawks and Mavericks rose so far up the rankings in back-to-back years.
In an effort to punish tanking teams, perhaps the lottery will reward teams that tried this season, although the Mavericks don't make the cut.
"Adam Silver wants to punish the tanking teams," read Bill Simmons on his podcast. "Well, the Warriors aren't a tanking team. The league doesn't want to waste Steph's last few years. They want to keep the Warriors a marquee franchise. Gifting the Warriors the top pick lets the team either add Peterson or Dybantsa to juice the Warriors' core, or they trade it like the Cavs did for Giannis, or LeBron signs there."
The Golden State Warriors did try this season, and rewarding them with Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, Cam Boozer, or Caleb Wilson would certainly make Stephen Curry's twilight years just a bit better.
Simmons thinks there's precedent for the rigging.
"They did it last year with Dallas," he added. "That was insane. That was so blatant."
The Warriors only have a two percent chance to land the top pick, and are slated to make the play-in game even after an injury-filled season. With only a 9.4 percent chance to even land a top-four pick, fans would immediately be suspicious if Golden State walked away with one of the best players.