Before Kyrie Irving’s arrival to Dallas, the Mavs had a 29-26 win-loss card.
On Saturday, the NBA has opened an investigation into the Dallas Mavericks after they benched several key players in a matchup against the Chicago Bulls at the American Airlines Center. The result was a 115-112 home loss, which eliminated the Mavs from the playoffs and the play-in tournament. Luka Doncic only played twelve and a half minutes. Kyrie Irving was a DNP.
Those were among the few questionable decisions made by the Mark Cuban-owned franchise in what was anticipated to be a crucial regular season game. Relying on their bench players for the rest of the contest, there was a tanking atmosphere in Dallas that the league apparently caught a whiff off. Perhaps the management chose to improve their upcoming draft position rather than fight a losing battle in the postseason. But hey, commissioner Adam Silver prohibits stuff of that nature.
You be the judge. Here’s Cuban reacting to a missed game-tying three by his squad.
The Mavs are currently 11th in the Western Conference with a 38-43 standing. It’s a record that their fans hardly imagined ending up having when Irving arrived around the trade deadline. Looking back, when the Brooklyn Nets finally decided to unload Kevin Durant and Kyrie in exchange for a bunch of role players, the consensus was that the Nets will fade into oblivion. Well, look at them now. Brooklyn is on its way to the playoff as the 6th seed in the East.Kevin Durant meanwhile, is doing pretty good in the Valley. The Phoenix Suns have yet to lose a game when KD is in the lineup. They are the favorites to come out of the West.
As it appears right now, Dallas got the short end of the stick of the midseason swap. Amid having two superstars in Irving and Doncic, the team regressed. Cuban went on record to say that re-signing the flashy ball-handler is the top priority in the offseason. With the way things went, do you think he’s going to stand by that?