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[Dallas Mavericks]

The Dallas Mavericks STILL need to fire Nico Harrison - now more than ever

Photo by Austin McAfee/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Harrison has done more than enough to show himself unworthy to be the long-term steward of the franchise

It took 17 tries, but the Dallas Mavericks finally moved UP in the NBA Draft Lottery. Until this latest attempt, they’ve moved back in seven of their previous 16 drawings. The odds of that happening are roughly 3.95%. In the process, they’ve given up 13 spots in total throughout the years and missed out on the chance to draft players like Chris Weber or Penny Hardaway because of bad draft luck. They even had to trade up to draft Luka Doncic after falling from third to fifth.

The mavs have been in the lottery 16 times (not including 2023). Using their past odds for each lottery I calculated the probability that they would never move up or stay at number 1 (happened twice). That’s how I arrived at a 3.95% chance. pic.twitter.com/STK7CLogAo

— YDKB (@hoopfumes) April 14, 2023​

Now the Mavericks and their franchise have been brought back from the brink despite the “do not resuscitate” order some fans have assigned themselves. Now, though, against all odds — and it’s scary to even think it, but... we’re so back. That is, right after we deal with this little GM problem.

Ladies and gentlemen of the MavsMoneyball readership, Dallas winning this lottery is objectively hilarious. You couldn’t have scripted it any better. I love joking about league conspiracies and posting rigged memes as much as anyone. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this was planned. Dallas getting the #1 pick is a generational stroke of luck. But it has delivered that pick into the hands of a man who is, more than any other person in basketball, backed into a corner like a desperate animal and who’s sitting on a seat so hot that even looking at it without eye protection can cause permanent blindness.

Let me be clear: Nico Harrison did not make a deal with Adam Silver to get Cooper Flagg. He did not plan for any of this when he traded away Luka Doncic. He expected to be in the playoffs as a legit contender, not praying for the fourth-luckiest bounce in draft lottery history. He is not a man suited to running an NBA team, and even less so a team that will likely not ripen into a contender until after his stated “window of contention” closes. Right now, Nico Harrison is the greatest threat to the franchise's unlikely resurrection.

He’s a man who has stated he has little interest in what might happen to this team beyond a timeline that aligns with Anthony Davis’ contract. Cooper Flagg isn’t on that timeline. So, who is? Perhaps established names like Paul George or Kevin Durant, or in a best-case scenario, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Harrison appears drawn to ‘true hoopers,’ two-way players, or even ‘broken down 30-year-olds on their last legs’—though Giannis is clearly an exception to that last description, and Dallas would face overwhelming competition to sign the Bucks’ MVP.

To those who would say “get over it! It’s time to move past it and root for this team!” I would love to, but that isn’t possible while a cloud of malevolent incompetence hangs over every decision being made for this team’s future. Firing Nico Harrison is what moving on looks like. Pretending that everything is fine and Harrison is good at his job after having a number one pick fall into his lap can only lead to more harm to the franchise and distractions for players, fans, and team employees trying to get over having their team ransacked.

Even the slim possibility that Harrison could ship out this pick for a package around one of those players should be enough to kick him to the curb and bring in someone who knows how to steady a rocking boat. If Patrick Dumont has any sense at all he’ll make sure Harrison can’t do any more damage to this team than he’s already done, and do the no-brainer move by drafting Cooper Flagg. But if Dumont wanted to solve the problem in the long term, he’d give Harrison a bus ticket to literally anywhere else. Some place Nico can spend the rest of his life, blacklisted and unhirable by the league’s decision makers, telling anybody who would listen that he was right all along! If only AD and Kyrie could stay healthy! Yeah, yeah, keep yelling at those clouds, just get away from this team.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...eeds-to-fire-nico-harrison-now-more-than-ever

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

The Dallas Mavericks will select Cooper Flagg with first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Dallas won’t do anything crazy

According to sources reported by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, the Dallas Mavericks will do the obvious thing and select Cooper Flagg with the number one overall pick in June.

Sources informed MacMahon that Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont considers the chance to draft a player of Flagg’s caliber a “gift”. The Mavericks had a very small chance of jumping into the top spot, just 1.8%, and the move from 11th to 1st is the largest draft lottery jump in NBA history.

Of course, the fact that something like this is reported as breaking news is part of the entire problem with how the Dallas Mavericks have operated throughout the 2024-25 season. Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison went all-in one too many times and created an environment where all his decisions are open to second-guessing.

Flagg is a steady prospect; his freshman year at Duke he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists while also winning every National Player of the Year award there is. He’s also young; at just 18 years old he won’t turn 19 until December of 2025, partway through his rookie year. This is not a player you pass on, even if the Dallas Mavericks are in a win-now mode. While rookies do not typically help with winning, it’s reasonable to assume Flagg may buck that trend.

There’s still six weeks until the NBA Draft on June 25th, so one could assume things may change for the Mavericks. For now, though, the clarity is nice. We’ll still likely cover the draft like Dallas could make other choices, but having the first pick in a draft with a clear choice is an amazing feeling. Flagg really might be that dude. Here’s to hoping the Mavericks stay to their word and follow through with this pick.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...s-mavericks-cooper-flagg-first-overall-pick-i

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Direct any NBA Draft conspiracy anger at the Lakers, not the Mavericks

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

If anyone feels anger believing the conspiracies they should be mad at the premiere franchise who continues to get bailed out.

When Dallas Mavericks general manager secretively plotted his trade with Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, they needed a third team to help facilitate the cataclysmic workings to send beloved Luka Doncic to Los Angeles in exchange for Anthony Davis. The team they turned to was Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz — who reportedly did not know the details of the deal until it was too late.

I would be outside my body in anger if I were the Utah Jazz today. An organization that recently blew up their playoff caliber team, that positioned themselves to share the best odds at selecting Cooper Flagg with the first pick by winning just 17 games, moved from one to five in the 2025 NBA Draft order. They lost that spot to the Dallas Mavericks. But if I were the Jazz I would be directing my anger to Los Angeles, not Dallas.

The NBA has left the top of their draft to luck, so any team pinning their franchise hopes to an unreliable system start on the wrong foot. And when the league flattened lottery odds to disincentivize tanking, no team that started at one stayed there. But the complications start there, as the NBA has long-faced scrutiny from conspiracy theorists who believe the lottery system to be rigged. And outside of frozen envelopes, there is a running list of lottery moments where it appears the basketball gods have also aligned with league storylines, and these are just a few:

• 2023: San Antonio Spurs jump to one to select Victor Wembanyama, a player with close ties to those in the organization.
• 2019: New Orleans Pelicans jump to one to select Zion Williamson after trading Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.
• 2014: Cleveland Cavaliers jump to one to select Andrew Wiggins, who is then used in a deal to acquire Kevin Love. This after also making moves to the number one pick in 2011 after LeBron left Cleveland in a shocking offseason move. Cleveland received three number one picks over four drafts, just in time for James’ return to home.
• 2012: New Orleans Pelicans, under league control as they sell to new ownership, jump to one to select Anthony Davis.

Put on your conspiracy hat for a moment. Let’s say that the entirely far-fetched happened and the NBA office, staring down low ratings and a Lakers organization treading water at the end of James’ career, went to Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka and encouraged the orchestration of an international and generational superstar moving to the league’s most important franchise in exchange for lottery help. It shouldn’t be the Mavericks that league critics direct their anger — it should be at the Lakers, who like 2019, require help to keep their franchise floating from one era to the next. They’ve shot themselves in the foot time and again with roster management and have found their way out every time.

Rigged drafts aren’t a good look for the league. Dallas Mavericks leadership, in making the trade and the ways they’ve handled themselves publicly since, do not deserve to feel joy. It is a complicated thing to watch the team you’ve felt so much animosity toward the last three months get bailed out by luck, fate, or weighted ping pong balls. But any criticism or anger at the moment should be focused on the franchise who gets bailed out every time they’ve painted themselves into a corner.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...lakers-not-mavericks-luka-lebron-cooper-flagg

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

This is the year you finally go to the NBA’s Last Vegas Summer League

K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The Dallas Mavericks are going to draft Cooper Flagg and you’ll want to see him in person

On Monday night, the first thing I said to my wife after we’d celebrated the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Lottery was that I was going to have to change my flight and time in Las Vegas for NBA Summer League.

You see, Las Vegas Summer League has become a yearly pilgrimage. The first time I went was 2013, where I was in awe of actual media members and future NBA players. 12 years later, it’s become a time to catch up with old friends, take in intense and occasionally terrible basketball, and be around the festival-like atmosphere that prevails around UNLV.

Only this time, I’m going to watch Cooper Flagg, the 18-year-old phenom who dominated college basketball during the 2024-25 season and was a missed field goal away from the national championship game. I’ll get to see him in a Dallas Mavericks uniform in person for the first time he suits up, even it isn’t the big show.

And you know what? You can too. It’s one of the most approachable NBA fan experiences, even though it requires a little travel. You see, with games starting on the evening of Thursday, July 10th, you have nearly two full months to plan and execute a trip to Las Vegas!

At the moment, I expect Flagg to play maybe two games max, which means that opening Thursday night game and a game on Saturday during prime time. But there are so many games and the players this year should be exciting particularly if you’re a NBA fan at large.

General admission tickets, once they’re available, run around $60 a person, but again that’s for a full day’s admission for many, many games. The first weekend is the most packed but I’ve gone for both the start and the end of the event and it’s fun. Beyond that, if you’re looking to go really big and have a full on experience, the NBA has a range of packages for you.

• There’s the truly crazy courtside experience, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 with a ton of perks included including an invitation to a VIP pool party, getting to attend some photoshoots, and even getting to go to a shoot around with NBA players past and present.
• There’s a reserved seating grouping too, which some of the tiers of extras mentioned in the courtside experience. Those seem to be more limited in number.
• Additionally there’s a courtside upper deck classification which has a few of the perks of the other two, but the main draw has to be the tier of seats in the main court.
• Lastly there’s a general admission plus tier, which is general admission tickets plus some access to the VIP events.

When/if I go this season, it’ll be general admission, largely because I’ll have to work as well (assuming I don’t get media credentials). But it’s such a fun time either way and I can’t recommend it enough. With two months to plan, now is the time to get working on a trip. I hope to see you there.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...nally-go-to-the-nbas-last-vegas-summer-league

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

After winning the lottery, Mavs fandom is on shaky ground. But it doesn’t have to be

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The division of Mavs fandom after Luka just reached a boiling point.

A dichotomy of emotion and loyalty has been building in Dallas. It’s been growing for a while now, fertilized by bad decision-making, poor judgement and lack of integrity by people in charge.

It has created division and animosity between family members, across friend groups and group chats, in digital lives and the real world.

Its causes are found in greed, callousness and questionable character, and its effects will linger for years to come.

Its wounds run so deep that the differing sides now find it hard to even look each other in the eyes, even less be happy for one another.

And now the Dallas Mavericks have won the draft lottery. And with that a new chance to create something great.

But do they deserve it? Does an organization, who, led by its GM, made one bad decision after another the last months, deserve to be rewarded?

Luka Dončić was traded overnight, treated horribly afterward, everybody watched as they tried to tarnish his reputation. Done by an organization who had asked Dončić to carry so much for years, a man who never complained, a man who called Dallas his home.

After what they did, they don’t deserve this, one side of this local/international feud argues.

They don’t deserve this joy, when they took ours away.

Unfortunately, this situation forces us into new and complex territory. There is no right or wrong here in this world of philosophizing dichotomies, no correct way of feeling.

But the bottom line is that two things can be right at the same time. Luka Dončić deserved to be treated better, and Mavs fans deserve some joy.

The thing is, if joy is good and the pinnacle of sports fandom, shouldn’t we wish it on everyone?

I’ve seen Dallas fans in despair for months. Some have blocked me, because I continue to cover Luka Dončić, which has just been too hard on them, others spew hatred any chance they get, consumed with conspiracy theories.

Coping mechanisms in a time when everybody just wants to make sense of a senseless world.

Mavs fans have written to me with stories of darkness taking over, of hopelessness and grief. “I don’t know how to get over this,” one fan wrote to me, and all I could say was to hang in, it will get better with time.

And now, mid-May, things are looking up for Mavs fans. There’s finally hope. A faint whisper of joy to come for a fanbase who deserves it.

But we have to acknowledge that it’s really not that simple. One person - or a small group of people - took the joy away from a huge group of people, an international community of die-hard Luka supporters turned Mavs fans, and a community of die-hard Mavs supporters turned Luka fans.

People from Manila to Montpellier, from Rio de Janeiro to Helsinki, from Sydney to Berlin, from Oak Cliff to Deep Ellum - they all considered themselves part of this community.

Inspired by La Niño Maravilla, they came together to celebrate the talent that made them Mavs fans. Some had come for Dirk and stayed for Luka, others are born and bred in Dallas, or Texas, or New York or New England and just love this team.

For all of these people, and many more, things are more complex. They lost their community, people they called friends, and a big part of their joy and light in their sometimes tedious everyday lives. These people are still to this day torn between the love for a player, the love for a city and its team, and the perpetual anger towards a small group of people who thought they knew better, but really knew so little.

For these people, this is hard. For these people, it’s difficult to celebrate right now.

Does this mean, they ask themselves, that we actually live in a world where bad people or bad choices are rewarded? That’s hard to face. And it’s also not true.

No, the leadership who made one bad decision after another and stole so many people’s joy don’t deserve this.

But the struggling fans of Dallas do. And you know who else does? The workers, media people, people on the ground, the guards and salespeople, the administrators and coordinators, the entertainment crews, the video folk, the people working the concession stands. The podcasters and writers and radio folk. The commentators. These are people who looked into a year where they might have lost their livelihoods. Podcasts were going to be canceled, talented writers and reporters leaving to make a living somewhere else.

For these people, not only joy was lost with Luka, future plans were upended. Income and job certainty suddenly uncertain.

Luka Dončić will find his way, he will be alright, we all know that. He even said himself that he will always hold Dallas in a special place in his heart and forever be grateful for the love and passion the city and fans showed him throughout his time as a Mav. A generational talent on the biggest team in the world, a uniquely gifted player in a world of very gifted players. Ya, Luka will be ok, it was always the Dallas Mavericks’ future that was uncertain.

Irrelevancy, lack of youth, poor leadership haunting the team and its fans. No, it was the Mavericks who needed hope.

And now, for all the fans barely hanging in there, for all the fans disappointed and lacking faith after the trade, joy could be on the horizon again. It may not come in the shape of a lovable Slovenian teenager. It may take a little longer to reach its potential. And it may look slightly different. But once again, there’s hope for this team.

“Basketball is my outlet for peace”, a Mavs fan recently wrote online. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Sports giving you some peace, hope in the future and a lot of joy in the small things in life, despite the chaos of the times. Both in basketball and in life.

Find more Beyond Basketball pieces here.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...und-dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-cooper-flagg

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

3 burning questions for the Dallas Wings as they begin the Paige Bueckers era

Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images

How will the Wings fare in 2025?

The Dallas Wings will open the 2025 WNBA season at home Friday against the Minnesota Lynx. After successfully completing the most important offseason in franchise history, Dallas will set the foundation for the future of what they hope to be a perennial championship contender.

The last few months have seen the organization undergo a whirlwind of change at almost every level. It started with the hiring of veteran executive and coach Curt Miller to take over general manager duties from owner and President Greg Bibb. From there, incumbent head coach Latricia Trammell was replaced with USC assistant Chris Koclanes. Shortly after, superstar forward Satou Sabally was traded to the Phoenix Mercury in a massive four-team, 13-player deal. Through this move and others, Dallas completely re-tooled their roster; only three players are returning from 2024.

But the most pivotal moment of the offseason (and arguably in the history of the franchise) occurred on April 14th, when the Wings selected guard Paige Bueckers first overall in the 2025 WNBA draft. Bueckers, a generational prospect, instantly transformed the present and future outlook for Dallas, fast-tracking their rebuild and giving them a franchise player to build around for years to come.

Now, the Wings must take the first step toward crafting a contender around Bueckers and superstar guard Arike Ogunbowale. While it would be nice to see Dallas make a serious playoff run in 2025, that’s not likely to happen. This year is all about setting the tone, evaluating players, and establishing an identity. As the Wings embark on a new era, here are three big questions to think about throughout this season.

How will Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale fit together?​

Since Dallas won the draft lottery, one of the main talking points in the Wings space has been the potential pairing of Bueckers and Ogunbowale in the backcourt. Ogunbowale has been the first (and often second and third) option for Dallas since she was drafted in 2019, and many have wondered how she would accommodate playing next to a superstar talent at the point guard position for the first time. While Ogunbowale is an undeniably brilliant scorer, she is often criticized for her inefficiency and propensity for taking difficult shots. Can she simplify her shot diet and look to become a more effective off-ball player?

I think the answer is yes. For the last six years, Ogunbowale has been the sole offensive creator for Dallas. Satou Sabally helped when she was available, but she missed over half of the possible games during her time in Dallas, and as good as her playmaking is at the forward spot, she isn’t a primary creator. Here is the list of point guards Arike Ogunbowale has played next to in her career:

• Moriah Jefferson (hurt often, not productive)
• Ty Harris (before she was good in Connecticut)
• Veronica Burton
• Crystal Dangerfield
• Odyssey Sims
• Sevgi Uzun

You look at these backcourt partners and it’s no wonder Ogunbowale was asked to self-create so often. She’s never had anything close to a player like Paige Bueckers alongside her, and they’re about to make each other’s lives so much easier.

The beauty of the Bueckers/Ogunbowale fit is that both players can excel on and off the ball. Ogunbowale has been tasked with so much on-ball creation responsibility that many may not realize how effective she can be as an off-ball menace. Her career 35% three-point percentage seems a bit pedestrian, but she takes a ton (7.3 per game for her career) and many of those looks are off-the-dribble pull-ups with a high degree of difficulty. Per Synergy Sports, Ogunbowale shot 39% on catch-and-shoot jumpers last year, but these were just 18.9% of her field goal attempts; just 47.3% of her total shot attempts were assisted. When asked about playing alongside Bueckers, Ogunbowale asserted she’s “always been an off-ball type of player,” indicating that she is willing and able to embrace that role. The numbers back that up.

Of course, Ogunbowale will still get plenty of on-ball reps, as Paige Bueckers is one of the most effective off-ball movers we’ve ever seen at the collegiate level. Bueckers will provide incredible spacing and gravity when Ogunbowale is running primary action. Most of Bueckers’ three-point attempts in college were of the catch-and-shoot variety, and she was ultra-efficient on those shots at 42% last season. Bueckers also posted a blistering 1.51 points per possession on cuts during this time, demonstrating the complete off-ball package. (All numbers here via Synergy Sports).

I have two small concerns about the “Parike” fit. The first is that neither player gets to the rim all that much (<10% rim rate for Arike, 21% for Paige, per Synergy), and while Bueckers is an elite finisher, Ogunbowale is anything but. The best way to create advantages in the WNBA is to collapse the defense in the paint on drives, but both Bueckers and Ogunbowale prefer to settle for jumpers. Both players are incredible mid-range scorers, so that mitigates the issue a bit, and Ogunbowale is great at getting to the line and making free throws. It’s just something to keep an eye on as a potential area of improvement as the two get used to playing together.

Secondly, I worry a bit about coach Koclanes’ willingness to give Bueckers the keys to the offense and let her run a bunch of primary action. Bueckers is such an effective cutter, screener, and off-ball scorer, but the Wings will need her running plenty of high pick-and-roll to create advantages. After all, Bueckers is one of the most efficient pick-and-roll ball handlers we’ve ever seen. (1.11 PPP last season, per Synergy). As great as a free-flowing, Golden State Warriors style offense can be, the Wings need to let Paige cook. She should get the lion’s share of the on-ball reps.

Will Dallas be able to guard anyone?​

2024 was an absolute horror show for the Wings on the defensive end. It was the worst WNBA defense I’ve ever watched, and the numbers back up the eye test. Last year, Dallas finished the season with a 111.7 defensive rating, the worst mark in the league by over four points and one of the worst defensive ratings in WNBA history. So, there’s nowhere to go but up in 2025, right?

Thankfully, Dallas made moves in the offseason to improve defensively. Latricia Trammell was fired, as the “defensive minded” coach failed to implement a system yielding results. Her replacement in Koclanes is the former “defensive coordinator” for some very good Connecticut Sun teams and will hopefully provide a fresh perspective on that end.

On the roster side, Dallas brought in First Team All-Defensive guard DiJonai Carrington to help shore up their perimeter defense. Carrington is widely considered one of, if not the best, point-of-attack defenders in the league. She is likely the best defender the Wings have ever employed. Adding veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen will also help, as she is an effective post defender with some mobility.

Unfortunately, apart from those two additions, the rest of the roster doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence. Teaira McCowan, last year’s starting center, is not a good defender and was the anchor of last year’s horrible unit. So much of defense is predicated on good rim protection and the bigs’ ability to defend ball screens, and McCowan struggles mightily in both areas. The other big offseason addition, NaLyssa Smith, fell out of favor in Indiana because of her poor defensive performance— Indiana’s defensive rating was a whopping 11.4 points better with Smith off the floor in 2024. Promising forward Maddy Siegrist isn’t quick and gets blown by easily on the defensive end. And though Ogunbowale led the league in steals a season ago, her off-ball defense is bad, as she often gets lost in screening action.

Outside of the veteran additions and returning players, Dallas is rostering four rookies (three guards) who could struggle defensively in year one. Paige Bueckers and JJ Quinerly are great defensive players, but the adjustment to the increased skill and physicality of the W could limit them. Aziaha James is here for her scoring ability; defense is an afterthought. Luisa Geiselsoder has been a solid defensive big overseas, though it remains to be seen how she adapts to the WNBA, as well.

When you look at the composition of defensive talent on the roster, it’s hard to imagine this being anything other than a bottom-tier defense. Dallas added a few good defenders, but there are no wing stoppers or rim protection throughout the lineup. While the Wings should be able to score with the best of them, stops could be hard to come by.

How will the frontcourt rotation shake out?​

This Wings roster is incredibly goofy from a positional standpoint. Half of the 12-player squad is comprised of guards. The rest of the team is rounded out by three power forwards and two centers, and Kaila Charles. There really isn’t a true wing or small forward on this team.

Coach Koclanes has already been experimenting with the frontcourt rotation in training camp. In the first preseason contest against Vegas, Dallas started DiJonai Carrington, NaLyssa Smith, and Teaira McCowan alongside Bueckers and Ogunbowale in the backcourt. Against the Toyota Antelopes in game two, Koclanes switched it up, inserting Myisha Hines-Allen into the lineup in place of McCowan, sliding Smith over to the five spot. Smith hasn’t played the five much in her WNBA career, but she certainly has the size and athleticism to moonlight at the position. The question is if she will be able to commit to defensive improvement and handle the rim protecting responsibilities of a center at this level. I’m skeptical, but if Smith can play the five, the lineup against the Lopes could be an effective unit.

Hines-Allen will also play some small-ball center. Though undersized at just 6’1”, Hines-Allen is large and strong and has handled the position in the past. She offers fun dribble hand off ability, some three-point shooting, and solid defense on the block. Koclanes will no doubt try MHA in a few different roles to see what works best. Luisa Geiselsoder won’t be ready to join the team for the opener due to overseas responsibilities, but she should come over soon to offer solid defense and shooting at the five.

My biggest takeaway from the preseason is that Koclanes may not view McCowan as a surefire starter and 30-minute per-game player. McCowan’s defense is too poor, her offensive tenacity comes and goes, and she cannot space the floor. If her role is reduced, she could be more effective in spot minutes against second units, going all out with her effort in a 15–20-minute capacity.

To me, Maddy Siegrist is the best power forward on this roster. However, due to the construction of the team, she will likely begin the season coming off the bench as the backup three. While I don’t think that’s the most effective role for her, she should be able to provide a scoring punch for the second unit. DiJoani Carrington, while more of a guard, can handle the small forward spot and should be entrenched as a starter there. Bueckers can also slide over to the three in a pinch.

I think the best Dallas lineups will feature Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Carrington, Siegrist, and one of Hines-Allen, Smith, or Geiselsoder, whoever can handle the five best. It isn’t an ideal roster setup, and the coaching staff has a tall task on their hands to figure out the best possible frontcourt combinations.

Record prediction​

The Wings are a much better team than last year, but their defense will be too poor to make the playoffs. I’m predicting a 17-23 record, ninth in the WNBA and just outside the postseason picture.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/5/15/24424638/dallas-wings-season-preview-paige-bueckers-wnba

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

The Mavericks, and Mavericks fans, are so lucky that they were gifted Cooper Flagg

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

It is far better to be lucky than good

A new reaction to the Luka Doncic trade dropped Friday, this time featuring four-time champions Stephen Curry and Draymond Green:

Stephen Curry literally screaming when he saw the news that the Mavericks traded Luka Dončić to the Lakers is objectively hilarious …#MFFL

( : @namxsj) pic.twitter.com/ktmqM3UyVO

— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) May 16, 2025​

Green and Curry reacted like all of us did: by screaming and wondering if Shams was hacked. It’s a surreal video, knowing that the news was so shocking that even the most professional people acted like kids when they heard about it. Seeing this reminded me of what we, as fans, were in for as recently as Mother’s Day: years of bleak and depressing basketball littered with stories and pictures/videos of new angles of the historic trade that crushed us. Until the end of time, these never-ending anecdote drops would pedal the mind to churn out endless possibilities of what could have been. In all honesty, I had been mentally preparing for a lot of my adult life to be filled with my favorite team being irrelevant. That all went away in one moment.

The number one pick does not erase the last three months. Nico Harrison still needs to be fired expeditiously for the franchise to move on. But Cooper Flagg softens the blow in a way that cannot even be described as lucky. Whatever the final evolution of luck and divine power is, that’s what this turn of events can be quantified as. For the city, an ecosystem of businesses, websites, podcasts, and merchandise sellers who were unsure of their future (or sure that there was no future) now have a second breath to continue doing what they love and support the communities that they have built. For the franchise, they have their new centerpiece. Drafting Luka Doncic in Dirk Nowitzki’s final year and now being in a position to take Cooper Flagg in the first off-season without Doncic is a stroke of luck no franchise will ever see again. Patrick Dumont will surely recoup the value he lost on this franchise if they play their cards right. Nico Harrison now has an opportunity for a second chance, unjust as that may be. For the Mavericks organization, this, in the most literal sense, changes everything.

And for the fans, this isn’t just a ticket to starting over. Cooper Flagg is not just a great player who can deliver the Mavericks a championship one day. With the acquisition of the standout Duke star, Mavericks fans are given a piece of what they lost when Luka Doncic left. A chance to rally behind a guy- scratch that, our guy, and watch him grow. A chance to, once again, feel the ups and downs of trying to build a contender around a young player. And, most importantly, a chance to watch fun basketball again. Luka Doncic has not played a game for Dallas since Christmas of 2024, and in the subsequent four months, there was a lot of unwatchable basketball. It was a chore to turn the Mavericks on, never mind the crushing weight of everything that led to a poor product. And that was only going to get worse for years to come. That is, unless the Mavericks lucked into someone in the very limited draft capital they had. And that is exactly what happened.

If this had happened a year ago, when Zaccharie Risacher was selected first overall, the vibe in Dallas may have been suppressed. “Of course, the first time we get the number one pick is in a year with no stars!” would have been the overwhelming reaction. For this to happen this year, under the circumstances that this organization put itself in, and the turmoil only building for a fanbase ripe with frustration? It is stuff not even Steven Spielberg could write without laughing it off as too scripted. Either way, this has reignited passion and excitement in the city, and now the spins are all positive for the collective Dallas sports entity. All of a sudden, it is fun to be a fan of the Metroplex’s teams again. Like a great philosopher once said, with every “it’s so over,” there is a more resounding “we’re so back”.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...-that-they-were-gifted-cooper-flagg-nba-draft

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

The Dallas Wings found out what a WNBA contender looks like in season-opening 99-84 loss to Lynx

Napheesa Collier #24 of the Minnesota Lynx smiles at Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings on May 16, 2025 at the College Park Center in Arlington, TX. | Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images

Dallas backed themselves into a corner one too many times against Minnesota, but the Wings will get another crack at the Lynx in just a few short days.

ARLINGTON, TX — Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams stared Kaila Charles down, waving a three-fingered taunt all the way down the court, after nailing a 3-pointer with Charles’ hand in her face to put the Lynx up 81-66 on the Dallas Wings at the end of the third quarter on Friday at College Park Center.

That was the ultimate “find out” moment for the Wings in their season-opening 99-84 loss to the Lynx.

Dallas messed around and put themselves in trouble late in both the first and second quarters, but both times, with their backs against the wall, they battled back. In the first, the Wings fell down 15-8 to start the game before ending the quarter by outscoring Minnesota 13-4 in the final four minutes to take a 21-19 lead after one.

Late in the second, the Lynx began to assert themselves behind the pick-and-roll tandem of Williams and Napheesa Collier, grabbing their first lead of the second, 40-38, on a nifty find from Williams to Collier with 3:28 left before halftime. The tide appeared once again to be turning in Minnesota’s favor, but the Wings employed some full-court pressure in the half’s final two possessions. Wings guard DiJonai Carrington stole Merieme Badiane’s inbound pass with four seconds left before the break and fed Maddy Siegrist streaking to the hoop to tie the game, 46-46, at the break.

The Wings responded to that adversity with some of their best ball of the season-opener, but found out late in the third that they just couldn’t afford to keep backing themselves into a corner. The Lynx, WNBA finalists from the Western Conference a year ago, piled on for a 19-7 run to end the third quarter and left Dallas in their dust, waiving a three-fingered taunt all the way out of town.

“We showed some resolve and had a couple good responses there in the first half,” Wings head coach Chris Koclanes said. “Then in the third, I don’t know, maybe it was a little fatigue. We looked a little tired in a stretch. Once they got a little bit of distance, you saw a seed of doubt, and we couldn’t really recover from it.”

Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings drives to the basket during the game against the Minnesota Lynx on May 16, 2025 at the College Park Center in Arlington, TX.

Paige Bueckers scored 10 points on just 3-of-10 shooting from the field in her WNBA debut, but she grabbed seven rebounds while logging 30 minutes in the loss. Arike Ogunbowale led the Wings with 16 points in the loss but also had a rough go of things on the offensive end, shooting just 4-of-12 from the field. The pair combined to shoot 0-of-5 from 3-point range against the Lynx.

“Room to grow,” Bueckers said after the loss. “You’ve got to have a starting point. You’ve got to have a foundation to build on. We don’t want to overreact to the loss, but we also know we have a lot of things we have to clean up and get better at.”

Collier, who starred at UCONN right before Bueckers got there, absolutely torched a leaky Wings defense for 34 points on 11-of-21 shooting (2-of-3 from 3-point range) in the win. She’s a popular pick to contend for the WNBA MVP this year after winning the defensive player of the year award in 2024. Williams added 25 of her own points on 10-of-15 shooting.

The Wings and the Lynx will square off again, this time in Minneapolis, in just five days, but first, Dallas will host the Seattle Storm Monday night at College Park Center.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...s-debut-season-opening-loss-to-minnesota-lynx

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Revisiting our favorite NBA Draft conspiracy theories through the years

Dallas Mavericks have officially won the in NBA Draft Lottery with 1.8% pre-lottery chance to win the pick in Chicago, Illinois, United States on May 12, 2025. | Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery Monday, months after moving Luka Dončić to the Lakers in the most shocking trade in NBA history. It’s just the latest draft moment that has conspiracy theorists everywhere reaching for their tin foil hats.

The NBA, above all else, is a vehicle for entertainment. Sure, there’s interest in maintaining the highest level of skill and effort in the sporting world, as there is in maintaining the integrity of the game, at least inasmuch as those two goals dovetail with the first and foremost priority: growing the worldwide batch of eyeballs trained on NBA content at all times by putting out an entertaining product. Keeping fans entertained is job number one.

This core tenet of entertainers everywhere, from circus freakshow artists to Taylor Swift and the like, lies at the heart of why the legitimacy of the NBA draft and the ever-evolving draft lottery mechanisms attached to it have been repeatedly called into question through the years. The league itself, as it plays second fiddle to the NFL in popularity in the U.S. and third to the NFL and MLB in terms of league revenue, has an inherent obligation to place maximizing entertainment ahead of the integrity of outcomes in its decision-making, at very least when the likelihood of public awareness of indiscretion remains below the league’s preconceived acceptable threshold.

Whether administrative thumbs actually tip the scales of player movements or draft priority is not the sort of thing a team-site web blogger or sports radio caller will ever be able to prove or disprove. As long as the answer to the simple question, “Who stands to benefit here?” is still “the NBA,” the league’s draft lottery will continue to be the sports conspiracy theorist’s best friend.

It’s easy to brush aside the roundball tin-foil hatters on each individual claim that “The fix is in,” but the kooks have been keeping the rumor mill humming for 40 years or more at this point.

The latest episode of NBA Conspiracy Theater culminated on Monday, when the Dallas Mavericks were awarded the first pick in the 2025 NBA Draft after entering the Draft Lottery with the 11th-best odds, just a 1.8% chance, to receive the pick. It came, of course, three months and change after the team dealt generational superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 draft pick.

The reaction to that trade has been so overwhelmingly negative as to feed baseless conspiracy narratives left and right on its own: that the league may have dictated the move of an international superstar to one of its most popular teams in an effort to maximize his visibility, or that Mavericks ownership was actively tanking the franchise to make a move to Las Vegas more palatable, which would somehow align with the Adelson family casino business agenda. So, when the Mavericks moved up 10 spots to become the fourth-luckiest draft order jumpers in NBA history, it just added fuel to a fire that started burning in 1985.

This time, the conspiracy theorists are claiming the opportunity for Dallas to presumably draft Cooper Flagg comes as some sort of compensation from the NBA league office for the shady back-room deal to send Dončić’s generational talent to one of the NBA’s two most popular and internationally recognizable franchises at the trade deadline. In light of the questionable circumstances surrounding the Mavs’ newfound luck with the ping-pong balls that had fans and ex-fans alike muttering everything from “It’s so rigged” to “we’re so back” Monday night, let’s take a walk down NBA Draft Lottery Conspiracy Theory Memory Lane.

1985: Patrick Ewing to the Knicks​

The 1985 NBA draft was the first to use the NBA draft lottery. The lottery was established out of concern that the Houston Rockets had been tanking (before that term had been officially coined in the world of sports) the two years prior, to draft Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon. The Golden State Warriors finished with the worst record in the NBA during the 1984–85 season and would have had the first draft choice under the previous system, a simple coin flip between any teams that held the worst record in the league at the end of the season. That year, Georgetown center Patrick Ewing was the clear favorite to be the number one pick in the draft.

During the first live televised draft lottery ceremony, the league used a system where sealed envelopes representing the teams with the worst records were mixed in a tumbler, and then drawn by then-NBA Commissioner David Stern one at a time to determine which of these clubs would get the first pick onwards. According to one of two popular urban legends at the time, when these envelopes were added to the tumbler, one envelope was put in forcibly and banged against the edge, bending the corner, while all the rest of the envelopes were set in gently, preserving their pristine corners. While there is no evidence to prove any of this, the New York Knicks, who finished with the third-worst record in the league that season, eventually used the first pick to draft Ewing. He went on to become a legend on the team and lead the Knicks to the 1994 NBA Finals, though he never won a title.

So was it a “bent envelope”? Or was it a “frozen envelope”? The second urban myth surrounding Ewing’s selection is that the Knicks’ envelope wasn’t bent at one corner, but that it was put in a freezer for a time before being stuffed into the hopper with the rest of the team’s envelopes. That way, Stern would know how to make sure the Knicks got the No. 1 overall pick by how cold the envelope was to the touch. Dan Patrick recalls both conspiracy theories in the video above.

2003-2014: The LeBron James Saga​

Look. On face value, the result of the 2003 NBA Draft Lottery seems pretty legit. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets ended with the same terrible record in 2002-03 and, thus, held the same odds of receiving the first overall pick in the draft last summer. But it certainly raised eyebrows when Cleveland won the rights to select Akron’s own LeBron James, ensuring that “the next Jordan” got a storybook start to what would become an all-time great NBA career. Akron, of course, sits just about 40 miles south of Cleveland.

The 2003 Cleveland draft lottery win in a vacuum may not rise to the conspiracy level. However, when combined with ALL the LeBron-related draft shenanigans that took place from 2011-2014, it can lead conspiracy theorists to start start chain-smoking cigarettes, pinning up an elaborate collages of newspaper articles on their bedroom walls and connecting the dots with different colored strands of yarn.

Enter The Decision. The Cleveland story was nice and all, but the conspiracy theory went that the LeBron phenomenon would better serve league goals in a larger coastal market. James took his talents to South Beach before the 2010-11 season. Was a league orchestrated trade of the first overall pick in 2011 (which ended up being Kyrie Irving), plus Baron Davis, from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Cavs for Mo Williams Jamario Moon compensation for Cleveland’s loss in the sign-and-trade deal to Miami the year prior?

Or was that not near enough? What about making sure the Cavs got the number one pick in three out of four NBA Drafts from 2011-2014? The Cavs had just a 1.7% chance to jump up and and get the first pick in 2014 draft, but they did, and ultimately selected Andrew Wiggins with the first pick that year. Wiggins would then be used in a trade to bring Kevin Love to the Cavs.

Would that make up for the loss of the generational hometown hero? No? What about if James came back after winning back-to-back titles in a sexier, more international market to write an epic ending to his storybook start in Cleveland with a title for his hometown Cavaliers in 2016, with Irving, who in this grand conspiracy was payback to Cleveland for letting go of James in the first place, now playing Robin to LeBron’s Batman? Eat your heart out, Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

LeBron been said the lottery is rigged lol pic.twitter.com/3WDmTeLAHF https://t.co/Yw7uUpM5vZ

— ²³ (@BronGotGame) May 12, 2025​

James himself has recently fanned the flames of conspiracy theories like these. In a March appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, he said the following, intimating his own belief that the league may have orchestrated or at very least influenced some of these larger-than-life draft moments.

“During the lottery drop, Cleveland got the No. 1 pick,” James said. “I just don’t think that was — what a coincidence. Let’s keep LeBron home. You know what? Patrick Ewing to the Knicks. Derrick Rose to the Bulls. I understand the assignment, guys.”

2008: Don’t forget about Derrick Rose​

Getty Images
NBA commissioner David Stern shaking hands with Chicago Bulls pick Derrick Rose during draft at Madison Square Garden.

Injuries may have prevented Derrick Rose from realizing his full potential in the NBA, but just five years after James made his compelling debut, it looked like the league was trying to reproduce the LeBron the Hometown Hero story in a revival of the Chicago Bulls with one of their own.

Rose, who played his college ball at Memphis, is originally from the Englewood area of Chicago. The Bulls had been struggling since the Michael Jordan Era ended. Maybe one hand could wash the other, the Derrick Rose truthers will tell you. Rose took John Calipari’s Memphis Tigers to a then-NCAA record of 38 wins and a berth in the national championship game in his only college season and was a surefire, can’t-miss stud as the 2008 NBA Draft rolled around.

The only problem was that the Bulls had just a 1.6% chance on landing the first pick to complete the storyline, eerily similar to the one conspiracy theorists will tell you the NBA previously manufactured in another Midwestern market just five years before. The fact that injuries to Rose in subsequent years kept the play from putting the Bulls all the way back on the map doesn’t mean there was no conspiracy in the first place, the grassy knoll trolls will tell you.

2012: Anthony Davis to New Orleans​

The New Orleans Hornets were a league owned team as the 2012 Draft Lottery approached. They were ultimately sold to Tom Benson, whose platform for ownership included keeping the team in New Orleans. The conspiracy theory here goes that the Hornets were given the first overall pick in the 2012 draft as a reward to Benson for staying put in the Crescent City. They ended up drafting one Anthony Davis, who factors into no fewer than three of the juiciest draft conspiracy theory nuggets on this list, with the first pick that year. Davis is like the “Smoking Man” from the X-Files who seems to appear, light a cigarette and say something cryptic every time conspiracy is afoot.

Stern, who was still two years from retiring as NBA Commissioner, had this to say (to NBC Sports) about NBA Draft conspiracy theories at the time:

“It has gotten enough sort of annual currency, that the one thing we want to do is even though we shrug it off and make a little fun of it, that we also make sure our process is about as airtight as it can possibly be and well reviewed and well viewed so there’s no problem.”

The same people pushing this conspiracy would also raise an eyebrow when telling you how interesting it is that Sterns tenure as commish spanned from 1984 to 2014, a tenure conveniently bookended by two of the most notable NBA Draft Lottery conspiracy theories on this list.

2019: Anthony Davis to the Lakers​

Photo by Matteo Marchi/NBAE via Getty Images
Zion Williamson speaks with the Pelicans after being selected number one overall during the 2019 NBA Draft on June 20, 2019 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

It’s also remarkable how similar many of these conspiracy theory storylines are to each other. We must really be onto something, huh?

The 2019 arrival of Davis in LA played out in circumstances similar to this year’s Dončić-to-the-Lakers story — except that the Pelicans were, unlike the Mavs, able to command a king’s ransom from the Lakers in exchange for the superstar they sent out West in 2019. The trade sent Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the draft rights to De’Andre Hunter, two first-round picks, and a first-round pick swap back to the Pelicans that year.

Then, after a gruesome 2018-19 campaign, the Pelicans won the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery for their trouble and took Zion Williamson, a one-year wonder out of Duke, with the pick. Some of these similarities, including Davis’ presence in the middle of it all, between the 2019 draft lottery conspiracy theory and this latest one centering around Dončić, Davis (again) and Flagg, are downright eerie.

Never mind the fact that it takes much more than mere coincidence to prove conspiracies like this. Never mind the fact that if any or all of these conspiracy theories are true, that means the NBA front office is perpetrating actual fraud against a group of 30 unwitting billionaire team owners and their ownership groups each year — or that all 30 ownership groups are in on the fraud cabal and willing to let the strings of roster machination be pulled by someone other than themselves or the people they directly hire. To put it lightly — it’s not likely at all.

In their 17th time in the NBA Draft Lottery the Mavs finally moved up. They have now in 17 appearances in the lottery saw their pick:
Drop 7 times
Stay the same 9 times
Improve 1 time
Wrote up that history for all interested tonight. pic.twitter.com/l54NF2lgKT

— Mark Followill (@MFollowill) May 13, 2025​

Is the NBA Draft Lottery system rigged? Has it been for 40 years? Or, was the Mavericks’ latest stroke of luck in moving up to get the first pick merely a reversion to the mean for one of the two franchises (Dallas and Minnesota) that has historically been the least lucky with their ping-pong balls? Do a confluence of intersecting coincidences point to a grander conspiracy at hand? Or, can you just chill?

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...a-draft-conspiracy-theories-through-the-years

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Dallas Wings drop season opener in Paige Buckers’ WNBA debut, falling to Lynx 99-84

Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Bueckers was one of five Dallas players in double figures, finishing with 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one steal in a 99-84 loss to the Minnesota Lynx.

All eyes were on No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers as she made her WNBA debut Friday against the Minnesota Lynx. The College Park Center crowd cheered after every point, rebound, and assist for the young star’s introduction to the league.

Unfortunately, it was not enough. Dallas fell to the Lynx, 99-84, in front of a sold-out crowd of 6251 in Arlington, Texas. Bueckers finished her debut with 10 points, seven rebounds, and two assists.

“We don’t want to overreact to the loss but we also know there’s a lot of things we have to clean up and get better at,” Bueckers said.

Friday’s game was the start of Dallas’ 10th — and final — season at College Park Center on UT-Arlington’s campus. The team may be moving to a new arena next season, but they began making major changes this offseason, returning just three players from a 2024 team that went 9-31 and was decimated by injuries.

That performance, good for the second-worst record in the league, earned them the No. 1 pick, which they used to draft Bueckers in the WNBA Draft in April. Bueckers highlights a cast of nine newcomers to the team that are also led by a new head coach, Chris Koclanes.

Koclanes had worked in the WNBA as an assistant from 2016-2023 for the Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks before taking an assistant job at USC. Friday was his WNBA head coaching debut.

“I’m going to improve each and every day,” he said after the game.

Dallas drew a tough opening day game for their new core, facing off against a Lynx team that made the WNBA Finals seven months ago and came one game short of winning it all. Napheesa Collier led the team to its success last year and showed she’s still one of the league’s best players Friday with a 34-pojnt, 4-rebound, 3-assist performance.

With a new team comes new offensive and defensive looks and Koclanes threw the kitchen sink at Minnesota Friday. Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, and Myisha Hines-Allen took turns bringing the ball up the court, showing their willingness to let their star backcourt play off the ball of each other as well as both play off the ball at the same time. Defensively, Bueckers matched up with Collier at times and seemed to hold her own against the All-WNBA star.

“The feel is going to develop,” Koclanes said. “I liked our lineups. People got opportunities...we have lots of options and lots of very good players.”

Dallas’ scheme worked in the first half, as Minnesota struggled to find a rhythm outside of Collier. The teams went into the locker room knotted at 46, but Minnesota came out firing in the third quarter. The Lynx opened the quarter on a 27-13 run to build a 14-point lead in under eight minutes. Dallas fought back at the end of the quarter, but Minnesota had shifted the momentum and carried a 15-point lead, 81-66, into the 4th period. The Lynx coasted from there.

“The slippage just continued and we didn’t have enough to really get it back under control,” Koclanes said. “So, again, it’s a growth opportunity and a learning moment for all of us.”

The Wings will look to bounce back Monday when they host the Seattle Storm at CPC. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. CST and will be broadcast on NBA TV.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...aige-buckers-wnba-debut-falling-to-lynx-99-84

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

The Dallas Mavericks got lucky — that’s all, folks

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

Improbable events lead to irrational responses

When your lived experience is incongruent with your expectations, when you feel oppressed by some unseen deck stacker, when the most obvious explanations of happenstance and coincidence fail to provide any balm to the weary traveler in this plane of existence, it is tempting to believe in grand conspiracy. What such theories lack in verifiable facts and logical cohesion, they make up for by conveniently offering a simple, unifying explanation for all that ails us.

If you had asked me thirty years ago whether the massive proliferation of human knowledge via the internet would squelch or crank up the spread of misinformation, the younger man I was would probably have been naive enough to give the wrong answer. Anyone can open Wikipedia and read basic facts about science, history, and world events—yet the gulf between what the average person believes to be true and verifiable reality has never been wider in my lifetime.

We have self-sorted into our respective groupthink hives—a dynamic transcending geography. When I was growing up, you could go to the mall or a poetry reading at a local bookstore and be amongst a wide swath of diverse humanity. People were different and happened to live in the same town. This allowed your horizons to be expanded and your worldview to be challenged, without leaving your city. Now, we find our way into information silos and seldom step outside them—except to bark at others. It is dangerous, sad, and intellectually lazy—it is also the new normal.

This dynamic has invaded so many aspects of our lives, and until this week, sports have largely been immune. Sure, sports-themed conspiracies exist, but they rarely break into the mainstream with no evidence beyond juicy circumstantial musings. An alarming number of people seem to believe that the Dallas Mavericks’ shocking vault into the number one pick in this year’s draft can best be explained by the baseless theory that the league rigged it. Seeking clicks and engagement, otherwise credible YouTube channels and podcasts—some backing and others rejecting the conspiracy theory—have reinforced this by using the word ‘RIGGED’ in the thumbnail or title of episodes. It is in the groundwater and the zeitgeist, even if it makes zero logical sense.

The supply and demand of championships stack the raw math against every team, and those odds grow longer for small-market clubs and ineptly run front offices. This leaves teams in long stretches of irrelevance with no end in sight. If you are a Washington Wizards lifer, the post-2019 flattened lottery odds have flattened your spirits year after year.

Combine this perception of long-suffering fanbases ‘deserving’ something for seeing their team lose a metric ton of regular-season games (and not getting it) with the notion that the Dallas Mavericks received an illicit kickback from the league for shipping Luka Doncic to the Lakers, and the howling of ‘this is rigged’ was Thanos-level inevitable. Yet that does not make it empirically true.

The final ingredient? The NBA is not immune to the societal rise of distrust in institutions. This flame is shamelessly fanned by those who profit by creating and maintaining an audience. The outrage machine must eat. Plus, it just feels good for those who need an occurrence so zany to make sense.

Ernst and Young certifies the legitimacy of the lottery at all phases. Team and media representatives monitor the lottery as the ping pong balls are selected. This is not simply a one-ball drop. This is a combination lock of multiple balls pulled to arrive at a combination pointing towards a team. Zach Lowe stated on his podcast that the last of the four balls that would determine the winner of the first pick could have landed on several teams.

The Zach Lowe Show / The Ringer
The Ringer’s Zach Lowe showing off the circled numbers for Portland and Dallas.

According to Lowe, the first three numbers - 10, 14, & 11 - meant that the ground was set for teams to jump up, given that the lower numbers represented teams with higher odds. Team reps from those franchises were shooting each other knowing looks—they might get jumped.

For the fourth and deciding number, tons of options remained. If 6 is pulled, it is the Portland Trailblazers drafting Cooper Flagg. If the last ball was a 1, the Washington Wizards win the lottery. A 2 and it’s in the New Orleans Pelicans. A 3 and it’s the Brooklyn Nets. A 4 has the Toronto Raptors doing a happy dance. The number 8 gives it to the Chicago Bulls. A 9, and they are lighting the beam in SacTown.

The best chance in that moment of truth, according to Lowe, was easily the San Antonio Spurs. They had 3 possible draws that would match them up with the number one pick, given the combination in place with the first three numbers pulled. A 5, 12, or 13, and it is a front line of Wemby and Flagg, a reign of terror in the West for a decade or more.

Instead, it was only the number 7 that could have saved the Dallas Mavericks. A fanbase that deserved the stroke of luck, a General Manager that did not, and an owner that, by Tim MacMahon’s reporting for ESPN, will not allow this blessing to go unrealized—no matter his GM’s penchant for doubling down on stupid.

To believe the league ‘rigged’ the draft, means accepting that the ball with the 7 on it was magically selected through some sort of undetectable means in front of media, team reps with competing interests, and accounting firm staff. You must also believe that multiple levels of conspirators would risk federal prison. Likely charges would include: Wire Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343), Conspiracy to Commit Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 371), Honest Services Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1346), Racketeering (RICO Act – 18 U.S.C. § 1961), amongst others, with prison time ranging from 5 to 25 years.

Such a revelation would damage the NBA irreparably, akin to the 1919 Chicago Black Sox and the 2015 FIFA scandals. The NBA would never recover its reputation. Sponsorships and TV deals would tank. A new league would likely form out of the ashes once it was clear that the NBA was an albatross around the neck of professional basketball.

It is unthinkable. There is no proof. There is a massive incentive for it not to happen. Yet, listen to the crackpots, and the dots are connected on the corkboard with thumbtacks and yarn in about ten seconds.

Between 2000 and 2016, the league attempted 6,255 shots beyond half court, making 165 of them. That is a hit rate slightly higher at 2.6 percent than the 1.8 percent chance Dallas had to win the lottery. While unlikely and difficult to separate narratively from surrounding events, this lottery outcome is slightly more difficult than an in-game half-court shot. When those are hit, no one claims a grand conspiracy because it happens right in front of us. We have evidence all around us of improbable events, and it is this sort of long shot (pun intended) that makes sports a compelling, unscripted human drama in real time.

After consummating the worst trade in league history, the Dallas Mavericks lucked out. It is not some slimy backroom make-good. It is not a sign that Nico Harrison is suddenly a genius. It does not make the Luka trade good basketball business. It was not and never will be. It is, though, a reprieve for neophyte ownership and a respite for a beleaguered fan base.

Conspiracy theories comfort the rattled mind at the price of rotting it from the inside out. They tell a malleable story to reinforce biases and make quick sense of a complicated, random world. The truth, by comparison, is both staggering and a bit boring. Few teams have ever reached the conference finals and then secured a top ten lottery pick the following year. No team had completed that two-year cycle twice in a row until the Dallas Mavericks just did. Sometimes, the universe is a goofy place.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/maver...he-dallas-mavericks-got-lucky-thats-all-folks

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

How to watch the Dallas Wings for the 2025 season

Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings signs autographs after the preseason game against the Toyota Antelopes at College Park Center on May 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. | Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Following the Wings in Paige Bueckers’ rookie season will be easier than ever for local fans.

For anyone whose anger at the other local basketball team is expressing itself in a switch-over to Dallas Wings fandom, or for those whose interest is piqued by the arrival of Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall draft pick who got here first and the WNBA’s next bonafide phenomenon, following the Wings this year will be easier than ever.

Wings fans will have three main options for watching the team’s games this season, which starts Friday when the Minnesota Lynx, who lost a five-game WNBA Finals series in 2024 to the New York Liberty, descend upon College Park Center in Arlington on Friday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., and pregame coverage will start 30 minutes before the game. Bueckers grew up a fan of the Lynx, spending her youth in St. Louis Park, Minn. She went to high school in nearby Hopkins before eventually leading the UCONN Huskies to the 2024 NCAA title.

“Growing up, watching the WNBA, this was everything I wanted to be,” Bueckers said in the video below, posted on social media by the WNBA. “Life really comes full circle, and God works in mysterious ways. Just to be here in Dallas, embracing a new city, a new team and a new organization, and then the opening game being against the dynasty that I looked up to so much growing up — really a full circle moment, for sure.”

If you’re watching locally, 28 of the 44 Wings games will air on KFAA Channel 29, just like most Dallas Mavericks games did in the 2024-25 season.

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The Wings will also be prominently featured across the WNBA’s national broadcast partners. Of the team’s 23 nationally televised games, three will air on ESPN, two will air on ABC and 11 will air on ION. If you have YouTubeTV, DIRECTV STREAM, FUBOTV or Pluto TV, you can find ION somewhere within the recesses of your channel guide. The season opener against the Lynx will be broadcast to a national audience on ION. NBA TV (4), CBS Sports Network (2) and Prime Video (1) will also deliver Dallas Wings games to a national audience this season.

Between KFAA and the national schedule, all 44 regular season Dallas Wings games will air on linear television for the third straight season. Games airing on NBA TV and CBS Sports Network, along with those tabbed for ESPN3 and Prime Video, will also be carried locally live by KFAA. WNBA League Pass will provide access to select out-of-market Wings games, as well as every game on demand.

The Wings went 9-31 last season and will look to Bueckers and her backcourt partner Arike Ogunbowale, the league’s second-leading scorer (22.2 points per game) from last year, to engineer some upward trajectory this season. The team will be led by first-year head coach Chris Koclanes, who makes his WNBA coaching debut after serving as an assistant coach at the University of Southern California for the last two years.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/5/16/24431144/how-to-watch-the-dallas-wings-for-the-2025-season

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Olivier-Maxence Prosper is slipping out of the picture for the Mavericks

Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images

Prosper has yet to pop for the Dallas Mavericks.

Olivier-Maxence Prosper’s sophomore year didn’t go bad, necessarily, but it didn’t go well, either. The Dallas Mavericks’ season fell apart late in the year after the disastrous Luka Doncic trade and the Kyrie Irving injury. Usually that opens up opportunities for young players like Prosper to shine. Unfortunately, he didn’t exactly capitalize on the chance. By the time the season was a wash and playing time really opened up, Prosper had been ruled out for the year with a wrist injury.

Season in Review​

Prosper’s stats don’t jump off the page. He only scored 3.9 points per game, taking only 3.3 shots per game. That’s in limited minutes, of course. Prosper only played 52 games, averaging 11.2 minutes per game. He wasn’t able to hit the occasional 3-pointer, either, shooting 23 percent from deep on one attempt per game. Per 36 minutes, that’s only three attempts per game. One way he can get on the floor more often is being a reliable pressure relief valve on the perimeter. So far he hasn’t shown promise in that role.

The other way is doing dirty work—defense, rebounding, and facilitating the offense. Unfortunately, none of that really stood out this season. Prosper averaged 2.4 rebounds and less than an assist per game. He showed flashes of potential on defense, but never a sustained run of locking down opponents.

Make no mistake—Prosper didn’t look unplayable. But he’s a long way from being a contributor for a playoff contender, which (at least what we can intuit as of now) the Mavericks intend to be. Prosper has size and length to lean on, but he needs to make shots and become a defensive threat going forward.

Best Game​

The Mavericks January 27th game against the Washington Wizards was Prosper’s shining moment of the season. He scored 20 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out an assist. Dallas won the game 130-108.

Contract Status​

Prosper has two years left on a four-year, $14 million rookie contract. The two remaining years are both team options. It’s likely the Mavericks will exercise their option the third year, as it’s only $3 million and change, and they need cost effective players.

Looking ahead​

Prosper is still young—sort of. He’ll be 23 years old at the start of next season, and on the third year of his contract. The Mavericks need to see something from him soon. And sometimes patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to first-round picks, but this isn’t a front office that has indicated they want to slow-build anything. Maybe that changes by netting the first overall pick this summer. But for the good of the Mavericks and his own career, Prosper needs to start showing a way he can contribute, or he’ll soon find himself out of the picture in Dallas.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...slipping-out-picture-for-the-dallas-mavericks

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Wings vs. Storm Game Notes: Dallas’ outside shooting, interior defense fall short in 79-71 loss

Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings shoots the ball against the Seattle Storm during the first half at College Park Center on May 19, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. | Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Rookie Paige Bueckers led the Wings with 19 points in the loss but looked more comfortable with the speed and physicality of the game than in her WNBA debut.

ARLINGTON, TX — The Dallas Wings (0-2) dug deep in moments on Monday but couldn’t mount a comeback in a 79-71 loss to the Seattle Storm (1-1) at College Park Center.

The Wings are a full-fledged construction zone at this point, with a renovation-style teardown and rebuild in effect in 2025, so there are still positives to be taken from a loss like Monday’s. The team’s 3-point shooting and interior defense, however, are not among them.

Dallas shot just 4-of-19 from 3-point range in Monday’s loss and watched Seattle nail 9-of-11 of their attempts from beyond the arc in the first half. The Storm missed all four of their 3-point attempts in the second half but still shot 60% from deep for the game. Skylar Diggins and Gabby Williams each hit 3-of-4 from 3-point range, while Alysha Clark went 2-for-3 in the win.

The Wings’ defense couldn’t make heads or tails of the Storm’s pick-and-roll sets at times, which often led to easy buckets inside for Seattle. The Storm feasted inside at times as they built a lead as large as 15 at the half and held the Wings at arm’s length until time ran out. But they also held Seattle to just 10 points in the third quarter and just 13 points in the fourth to give themselves a chance at their first win of the year.

Paige watch​

We at Mavs Moneyball, like so many who are ensconced in WNBA fandom, are going to be devoting a greater-than-zero amount of energy to Paige Bueckers Watch this year. It’s only natural. She’s been tabbed The Next Big Thing in the W this year, and she’s in our city.

Bueckers looked much looser in her second WNBA game than she did her first. She played a much freer-flowing brand of basketball, created more and was more of a playmaker. Of course, it helps that Bueckers wasn’t facing the rabid defensive pressure on Monday against Seattle that the team did on Friday against the Minnesota Lynx.

Bueckers nailed her first 3-pointer of the game in the first quarter, scored 11 points in the first half on Monday (compared to just 10 in four quarters on Friday) and was efficient in starting the fast break. She dished four assists before halftime, compared to just a pair in the entire game against the Lynx. She showed that signature ability to hit the toughest shots on the floor, even through fouls that went uncalled, even over double-teams.

Bueckers finished with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, eight assists and five rebounds.

Siegrist sighting​

Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
Maddy Siegrist #20 of the Dallas Wings shoots a three point basket during the game against the Seattle Storm on May 19, 2025 at the College Park Center in Arlington, TX.

Before the season-opener, when asked what she thought the next step of her development looked like going into her third WNBA season, Wings forward Maddy Siegrist thought about the question for a second then said, “Shoot a ton of threes.”

She went 1-of-3 from deep in the loss to the Lynx, then missed her first against the Storm on Monday. But in the third quarter, she hit two in a row as part of a 13-2 Wings run. Siegrist played off Bueckers nicely on her second, which made it 64-59 with 1:21 left in the third. Bueckers and Siegrist made a similar play on a little dribble-exchange look with just over three minutes left to play in the game for a jumper to make it 74-65, but the comeback ultimately came up short.

“Maddy’s extremely easy to play with,” Bueckers said. “She’s very smart, and I felt like a lot of our two-man action worked really well. She can shoot from all three levels and so she’s always a threat on the floor.”

Pardon us while we form an exploratory committee to investigate just how many more 3-pointers Siegrist and Bueckers can put up per game in the theoretical sense, and how the Wings can approach that number, in a very real sense. Siegrist finished with 12 points off the bench on 2-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.

Keep the main thing the main thing​

Both Wings head coach Chris Koclanes and guard DiJonai Carrington admitted in their pre-game comments that the team’s discipline and focus came and went a little too often in the Wings’ season-opening loss to the Lynx on Friday. Both said maintaining composure when things didn’t go the Wings’ way would be a big point of emphasis against Seattle.

“I thought our attention shifted to things outside of our control, the officiating,” Koclanes said pre-game, referring to the team’s loss to Minnesota. “Looking for more discipline in general across the board.”

Carrington said Koclanes pointed it out on film after the season opener.

“There [were] a lot of clips that he showed of us, whether it was us stopping to talk to the refs, or us stopping to be like, ‘Why didn’t we get the call?’ or stopping because we thought [Minnesota players] traveled,” Carrington said. “We have to play through that. We have to be better. We put ourselves at a disadvantage at the other end, 5-on-4.”

The Wings found it a little tougher to do those things once the game started, though. Midway through the first quarter, Arike Ogunbowale, one of this team’s unquestioned leaders and last year’s second-leading scorer in the WNBA, tried to drive past Storm forward Gabby Williams, who has about three inches in height on Ogunbowale. Williams swatted the driving attempt, then Ogunbowale got a little too feisty defensively in the backcourt, trying to make up for the play, and was called for a cheap reaching foul. The seventh-year pro got demonstrative with the officials after the call, which, predictably, led to a technical foul.

Ogunbowale had a tough game against Seattle, shooting just 2-of-14 from the field and 1-of-8 from 3-point territory in the loss. The Wings have got to find the ability to keep the main thing the main thing through the ebbs and flows of the game. This is not a team that can afford self-inflicted wounds as it searches for its identity on the court.

Dirk, Wemby in the stands​

After Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey slid into his courtside seat fashionably late for Friday’s 99-84 loss to the Lynx, the Wings continued to host some high-profile ballers in their second game of the season. Both San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama and Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki sat courtside for Wings vs. Storm.

Woah we transported to Area 51

WELCOME WEMBY ️ https://t.co/Enn7IShkhU pic.twitter.com/FxjjFCvMgg

— Dallas Wings (@DallasWings) May 20, 2025​

Wembanyama was seated between the scorers’ table and the Wings’ bench. The Storm picked Dominique Malonga, another French baller, with the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 WNBA Draft, right after the Wings chose Paige Bueckers with the first pick. Malonga, just 19 years old, goes 6’6” but played just 10 minutes in Seattle’s first game on Saturday and just one against the Wings on Monday. She scored a bucket late in the second on her only touch of the game.

WE GOT A LEGEND IN THE HOUSE pic.twitter.com/Uy1RpOHOYd

— Dallas Wings (@DallasWings) May 20, 2025​

Nowitzki sat on the other side of the court, near the broadcast table and received a loud ovation from the home crowd when introduced on the jumbotron in the game’s first quarter.

Philadelphia 76ers G and South Garland’s own Tyrese Maxey is here at the Wings game tonight! #WingsUp pic.twitter.com/K3tv06zFUm

— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) May 17, 2025​

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...ing-interior-defense-fall-short-in-79-71-loss

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Western Conference Finals: Predictions for Minnesota Timberwolves vs OKC Thunder

Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images

Are these the two best teams out west? Probably!

The gauntlet that is the Western Conference in the NBA Playoffs has played out, and we have two teams that are ready to duel for a trip to the NBA Finals. The sixth seeded Minnesota Timberwolves have made quick work of their first two series, defeating both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors in five games to get to this series. Meanwhile, the top seeded Thunder survived a seven-game knock down, drag out fight with the Denver Nuggets to get here.

This best-of-seven will start Tuesday night from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Each game will be available on ESPN except for game three, which will be an ABC game. There are no rest days built into this series, as this will go every other day until one of these teams has the four necessary wins to make the NBA Finals.

Odds provided by the DraftKings Sportsbook and are subject to change.

(6) Minnesota Timberwolves vs (1) OKC Thunder​

Series winner: Minnesota (+265) OKC (-330)​

Series spread: Minnesota +1.5 games (+120) OKC -1.5 games (-140)​

Tyler’s pick: Minnesota in 6​

Styles make fights in the playoffs, and I think Minnesota’s style is going to make this fight very interesting. Minnesota played the Thunder about as well as anyone, beyond your Dallas Mavericks. The key is that the Wolves have a lot of bodies they can throw at Shai, including Jaden McDaniels and SGA’s own cousin, Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Heck, reserve guard Jaylen Clark held Shai to a 25% effective field goal percentage in the regular season on 70 attempts. Could Clark be a mid-series adjustment?

As the world’s premier Julius Randle hater, I must tip my cap to the Dallas-native for his play in the playoffs, because he has been absolutely phenomenal during this run, averaging 24 points per game on 51% shooting from the field. With OKC being positionally small outside of the centers, they won’t have the size to match him with Gobert drawing Holmgren and Hartenstein. So, between Randle, Rudy Gobert, and last year's sixth man of the year Naz Reid, Minnesota has the size to force OKC’s hand and keep them from going small.

Series props​

Wolves win game 1 and series (+550)

Wolves +1.5 games (+120)

Series total games over 5.5 (-135)

Rudy Gobert to average 10+ rebounds per game in series (-110)

One of the reasons I love the Wolves is because they get to catch OKC on short rest. OKC has played 96 minutes of playoff basketball since the last time Minnesota last played. If you remember, Dallas caught Minnesota in a similar spot last year after they beat the Nuggets in seven. I think we get a similar result here. This is the first time OKC has been this deep in the postseason since Kevin Durant left town. Minnesota, meanwhile, was just in this spot last year, as we all know. It’s time for Ant to get one more skeleton in his closet.

David’s pick: Oklahoma City in 6​

My mind has gone two ways trying to decide this series. In one thought, the Thunder needed seven games to dispose of a Denver team that was not good after the first three or four guys. Their bench was bad during the regular season, and the role players that played were so hot and cold it was impossible to predict what they would contribute game to game. The Timberwolves are rested and beat up on a couple of bad teams to get their reps in, and are now poised to take advantage of the battered Thunder en route to their first NBA Finals. Then, in my prevailing thought, I realized how ridiculous this was. Oklahoma City is and has been a juggernaut for two years, despite falling early to Dallas a year ago. Their defense is unrivaled, and Shai is as good a closer as there is in the league. Minnesota has a tall task ahead of them, and Julius Randle has to be great for them to have a chance. This will be a Western Conference coronation, and the Thunder will put it all together to reach the NBA Finals.

Series props​

Over 5.5 games (-135)

Thunder to win 4-2 (+475)

Anthony Edwards to lead the series in assists (+600)

The first two picks are self-explanatory. This will be a longer series because these teams are very talented. The Thunder will ultimately win in six games, so getting these odds on that exact score provides a lot of value. For Edwards, the ball will be forced out of his hands a lot, and I am not sure why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the betting favorite in this category. Edwards is a great playmaker and if he is getting downhill a fair amount, this pick has a great chance.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...ons-for-minnesota-timberwolves-vs-okc-thunder

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

SB Reacts: Will Dallas use or trade the #1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft?

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

What’s the feeling out there?

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Dallas Mavericks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

Just a couple of quick questions this week based on next month’s draft. I know the Mavericks have committed to actually taking Cooper Flagg with the number 1 pick, but this is also the franchise that traded Luka Doncic for weak returns, so who knows if that’s actually going to happen.

Then, assuming they DO use the pick, do you want it to be for Flagg, Harper, or someone else? Results to come later in the week!

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...rade-the-1-overall-pick-in-the-2025-nba-draft

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Eastern Conference Finals: Predictions for Indiana Pacers vs New York Knicks

Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images

An underrated rivalry adds another chapter

The NBA Playoffs is often a war of attrition, and this Eastern Conference Final is no exception.

The third seeded New York Knicks just beat the defending champion Boston Celtics in six games in their second-round matchup. In that series, Jayson Tatum tore his achillies late in game four, and we found out that Jaylen Brown was playing through a meniscus tear in the series. However, you don’t apologize for series wins and the Knicks certainly will not be. They earned every bit of that series win after coming down twice from 20 points down to beat Boston in TD Garden.

The fourth seeded Indiana Pacers just handed the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers a gentleman’s sweep in their second round series. Indiana also was the beneficiary of some injury help, but that doesn’t explain away why the Cavs blew a seven-point lead in less than a minute to lose game two of this series. It also doesn’t explain why Cleveland also blew a 19-point lead in game five to lose the series. The Pacers were just better.

Of course, this series is littered with lore and history going way back. Recently, the Pacers beat the Knicks in seven games last year in the second round, but the Knicks have a different group this year. In fact, the Pacers have won the last three series between these two and five of the last six overall, dating back to 1995. You might remember that 1995 series for a certain Pacer who will be heard from prominently in this year’s tilt.

With the history lesson out of the way, let’s figure out who is going to advance to the NBA Finals.

If you missed it, read our Western Conference Finals preview.​

Odds provided by the DraftKings Sportsbook and are subject to change.

(4) Indiana Pacers vs (3) New York Knicks​

Series winner: New York (-145) Indiana (+125)​

Series spread: New York -1.5 games (+150) Indiana +1.5 games (-180)​

Tyler’s pick: Pacers in 6​

The Pacers have more outs in this series than the Knicks do. I believe that Indiana has a better and more diverse offense with Rick Carlisle at the helm, and shockingly, I trust their defense more than I do the Knicks. I also think Rick is a far superior coach to Thibs. If I believe those things to be true, there’s only one way I can go here.

New York needs both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns to be spectacular in order to win. To their credit, they absolutely have been thus far in these playoffs. The Pacers, though, have already shown they can win with Tyrese Haliburton not being a great scorer. In game four against the Cavs, the Pacers won by a 100 (unofficially) with Hali only scoring 11. They’re just a more diverse group and have more ways to get the job done.

Series props​

• Pacers to win game 1 and win the series (+265)
• Either team to come back and win a game from 20+ points down (+400)
• Pacers to be up 2-1 after game 3 (+180)
• Josh Hart to average 10+ rebounds per game (+190)

Per everyone’s good friend Matt Moore of the Action Network, Rick Carlisle is 67% against the spread as a road underdog in game one of the playoffs, winning over half of those games outright. I think the Pacers can ambush the Knicks in game one. That also plays into the Pacers being up 2-1 after game three. As far as the come back from 20+ points and win play, we just saw last series the Pacers come back from 19 down and the Knicks come back from 20 points down twice. These teams are volatile. Lastly, Josh Hart is a madman and therefore I trust him to get in and do the dirty work against a Pacers team without a dominant rebounding presence.

David’s pick: Pacers in 6​

This will be an exciting reinvention of a classic rivalry. The Knicks play a brand of basketball comparable to the Knicks from years past, but the Pacers play the most modern type of ball you can play. Indiana plays a form of pace-and-space, launching 40 threes a game, boasting an offensive rating of 117.3, while playing quickly at just under 100 possessions per game. The Knicks do none of the sort, playing nearly five possessions slower, taking four fewer threes per game, and only scoring 110.7 points per 100 possessions. It is truly a matchup of “math ball” and “old school grit and grind”.

Either style has it’s flaws, especially this late in the playoffs. For the Pacers, they could lose on shooting variance. For the Knicks, they could feel the tired legs and lose to attrition. There will probably be games that both teams lose for these reasons. Ultimately, however, it will come down to this: the Pacers have increased their net rating in the playoffs, while the Knicks have nearly dropped to zero. In the regular season, the Knicks actually had the offensive edge (117.3 to 115.4 points per 100 possessions) while their defensive ratings were exactly the same (113.3). The playoffs have been a different story. The Pacers have increased their offensive rating to 117.3 and lowered their defensive rating to 111.9, while the Knicks have been better on defense (110.6 rating), but their offense has plummeted to 110.7 points per 100 possessions. For this reason, the Pacers will win the series in six games.

Series props​

• Pacers to win (+125)
• Tyrese Haliburton to average 10+ assists (+200)
• Josh Hart to lead the league in rebounds (+500)
• Jalen Brunson to average 30+ PPG (+230)

The Pacers are going to win this series, so taking their moneyline at + money is great value. Haliburton probably won’t score too much in this series, given the wing defenders that New York has. But he will be able to distribute and pick apart the Knicks’ defense. Hart is a flyer here, assuming Karl-Anthony Towns will be on the perimeter a lot with Myles Turner, and Hart will be closer to the rim guarding Pascal Siakam. Brunson is going to have a huge series in a losing effort, as no one on Indiana can guard him.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...ictions-for-indiana-pacers-vs-new-york-knicks

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

What Cooper Flagg’s coach said about him that makes him an ideal match on the Mavs

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

A match made in high IQ heaven?

In March of this year, Cooper Flagg’s college coach, Chris Duhon, shared some interesting insights about the projected number one prospect.

The head coach of Duke and former NBA player was asked his opinion on which current Duke prospect he thinks has NBA star potential, and what part of their game excites him the most.

“Obviously Cooper Flagg. He’s just a great all-around player, and he competes at a high level. He wants to be coached, and he’s going to continue to get better and better.”

“I wouldn’t sleep on Kon Knueppel either. If put with the right team and coach at the next level, the future is bright for him as well,” Duhon said, also mentioning the currently projected number eight pick, who could be an interesting option for a lot of teams, as well.

Duhon sees both prospects as high IQ players, something the Dallas Mavericks have valued highly in the past.

“The main thing is that they both have high basketball IQs. They don’t have to rely on their athleticism because they think and see the game fast. With their ability to stretch the floor, it gives them more space to be effective.”

The void in playmaking, elite vision and decision-making left by Luka Doncic on the Mavs means that Dallas could end up being a great spot for the 6’9 power forward.

The fact that most of this team is used to playing with a superstar who’s always a step ahead, could help open things up even more for Flagg from day one. There’s a good chance the game will get much simpler for Flagg on an NBA team used to Luka Doncic level IQ and vision.

If you then add another high IQ playmaker in Kyrie Irving, who unfortunately won’t be back until late next season, it may get really interesting in Dallas long term.

Another good fit for Cooper Flagg in Dallas is coach Jason Kidd. He’s known as a high IQ basketball player himself, and has always spoken highly of and seems to prefer playing guys with high IQs, who he can trust.

In the past, when a player has shown that he has a high basketball IQ in Dallas, Kidd has been quick to point it out and has often chosen to play certain players to close games. He clearly trusted some of these players - who may lack in other skills - because of their decision-making skills and understanding of the game (high IQ). An example is former Mav, now Laker, Maxi Kleber, who despite often being rusty and losing a lot of athleticism due to injuries, Kidd often picked to close tight games because of his high IQ.

The 18 year old from Maine has been compared to Jalen Johnson and Kevin Garnett, but he reminds Duhon of a certain Dallas native:

“Flagg reminds me of Grant Hill but with a better 3-point shot and Knueppel reminds me of a stronger JJ Redick.”

With all this in mind, it seems that a player like Cooper Flagg would fit in quite seamlessly in the culture in Dallas. Add to that his elite defensive talent, as well as developing into an offensive juggernaut able to both create for himself, pass the ball at a high level and shoot from a distance, it’s hard to see any downsides to Flagg in Dallas, if they manage to surround him with the right people long term.

And if they end up drafting him on June 25, of course.

Find more Beyond Basketball pieces here.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...es-him-an-ideal-match-on-the-dallas-mavericks

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

What Chris Duhon said about Cooper Flagg that makes him an ideal match on the Mavs

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

A match made in high IQ heaven?

In March of this year, former Duke star and NBA player Chris Duhon shared some interesting observations about the projected number one prospect.

The former NBA player was asked his opinion on which current Duke prospect he thinks has NBA star potential, and what part of their game excites him the most.

“Obviously Cooper Flagg. He’s just a great all-around player, and he competes at a high level. He wants to be coached, and he’s going to continue to get better and better.”

“I wouldn’t sleep on Kon Knueppel either. If put with the right team and coach at the next level, the future is bright for him as well,” Duhon said, also mentioning the currently projected number eight pick, who could be an interesting option for a lot of teams, as well.

Duhon sees both prospects as high IQ players, something the Dallas Mavericks have valued highly in the past.

“The main thing is that they both have high basketball IQs. They don’t have to rely on their athleticism because they think and see the game fast. With their ability to stretch the floor, it gives them more space to be effective.”

The void in playmaking, elite vision and decision-making left by Luka Doncic on the Mavs means that Dallas could end up being a great spot for the 6’9 power forward.

The fact that most of this team is used to playing with a superstar who’s always a step ahead, could help open things up even more for Flagg from day one. There’s a good chance the game will get much simpler for Flagg on an NBA team used to Luka Doncic level IQ and vision.

If you then add another high IQ playmaker in Kyrie Irving, who unfortunately won’t be back until late next season, it may get really interesting in Dallas long term.

Another good fit for Cooper Flagg in Dallas is coach Jason Kidd. He’s known as a high IQ basketball player himself, and has always spoken highly of and seems to prefer playing guys with high IQs, who he can trust.

In the past, when a player has shown that he has a high basketball IQ in Dallas, Kidd has been quick to point it out and has often chosen to play certain players to close games. He clearly trusted some of these players - who may lack in other skills - because of their decision-making skills and understanding of the game (high IQ). An example is former Mav, now Laker, Maxi Kleber, who despite often being rusty and losing a lot of athleticism due to injuries, Kidd often picked to close tight games because of his high IQ.

The 18 year old from Maine has been compared to Jalen Johnson and Kevin Garnett, but he reminds Duhon of a certain Dallas native:

“Flagg reminds me of Grant Hill but with a better 3-point shot and Knueppel reminds me of a stronger JJ Redick.”

With all this in mind, it seems that a player like Cooper Flagg would fit in quite seamlessly in the culture in Dallas. Add to that his elite defensive talent, as well as developing into an offensive juggernaut able to both create for himself, pass the ball at a high level and shoot from a distance, it’s hard to see any downsides to Flagg in Dallas, if they manage to surround him with the right people long term.

And if they end up drafting him on June 25, of course.

Find more Beyond Basketball pieces here.

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/...agg-that-makes-him-an-ideal-match-on-the-mavs

 

[Dallas Mavericks]

Dwight Powell will outlive us all

Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images

The longest tenured Maverick remains a consummate pro

Dwight Powell’s career touches all corners of recent Maverick history. Traded with Rajon Rando to Dallas in December 2014, Dwight Powell's staying power is the stuff of legends. He has shared the court with Charlie Villanueva and Brandon Williams...with Chandler Parsons and Kai Jones...with Dirk and Luka.

If there is one case of a post-playing career tell-all book I’d love to read, it is the one Dwight Powell could write. However, Powell epitomizes the classy veteran who could author a juicy banger but never will. There is a reason this player has lasted and lasted over the years. Never flung into a last-minute trade to make salaries match, never cut for a flashy player that might help the team. The locker room gravity is immense and positive.

Season in review​

This year’s Mavericks faced immense challenges this season and never gave up. While Jason Kidd should get credit for this, it is also veterans like Powell, who have grown up in the league from end-of-the-bench youngster to inevitable starter back to end-of-the-bench grizzled vet, who can keep a locker room together every bit as much as the coach.

The injury plague did not spare Powell. A mid-January right hip strain sidelined Mavs veteran for an extended run. Of course, the obligatory hit-Powell-in-face moment this year came from friendly fire as Kessler Edwards left Powell bloody in March.

Best game​

One of the many games that saw Kessler Edwards start at Center for the Mavericks, the March 10th contest in San Antonio forced the Mavs face the Spurs with only 8 healthy players. Powell played a solid 21 minutes off the bench with 9 points, 6 boards, 3 dimes, and a block.

Contract status​

Powell is easily the longest-tenured Dallas Maverick, a distinction that gives him more time with the franchise than the General Manager, Head Coach, Training Staff, and any other player on the roster. His player option for 2025-2026 represents the final year of a 3 year, 12 million pact he signed in the summer of 2023 and will almost certainly be picked up, barring a surprising retirement decision. At 33 years old, Powell is unlikely to call it a career before finishing this deal.

Looking ahead​

The Mavericks are almost certain to introduce Dwight Powell on Opening Night as part of the 2025-2026 squad. As long as it is the deep reserve role he is best suited for, he will continue to be the sort of player you want on the bench as a last option big man. Always ready, great teammate, and drama-free.

Grade: C​

Source: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2025/5/23/24424562/dwight-powell-will-outlive-us-all