Mavs BREAKING: Luka Doncic & Kyrie Irving ‘Shut Down’ for Season ‘Considered’
DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks are “seriously considering” pulling the plug on the tail end of this disappointing NBA season with a shut-down of All-Star guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
The concept, as first noted by Shams, would put an awful exclamation mark and a step back from a year ago, when Dallas was in the Western Conference Finals.
Since then, Jalen Brunson has moved to the New York Knicks in free agency, and Kyrie has come over via a blockbuster trade with Brooklyn.
And it hasn’t worked … not even in a manner that is likely to allow the Mavs to qualify for the NBA's play-in tournament.
It’s a shame, of course – especially with Luka Doncic putting up MVP-like numbers. But three games remaining, that's what the Mavs are facing, as they're one game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the final play-in spot in the West while also not owning the tiebreaker against them. They're also two games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves and 3.5 games behind the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers.
The Mavs finish out the schedule with three home games against the Sacramento Kings, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.
The benefit of losing is of course a shot at a valued lottery pick. But that might not work out, either, as the culmination of this lost season here in Dallas. If the Mavs stay put in the current ‘tanking’ standings at No. 10, they’d have a 3-percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick and a 13.9-percent chance of jumping into the top four.
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