Mark Cuban gives up, putting final touches on Dallas Mavericks’ lost, awkward season

The only NBA team with two starters from this season’s All-Star Game is not going to the playoffs. They didn’t even make it as far as the play-in games.

In a 30-team league, owner Mark Cuban built a team around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving that will finish outside the Top 20. Call it the Bottom 10 because that’s all the Mavericks deserve, especially after a ridiculous organization decision to basically sit all their best players for a 115-112 loss to the mostly disinterested Chicago Bulls Friday at the AAC.

The club’s final desperate threes were not taken by Doncic or Irving or Tim Hardaway Jr. or Maxi Kleber. Doncic played the first quarter and first possession of the second. The other three (along with Josh Green and Christian Wood) were held out of the game in order to increase the club’s chances of keeping the 10th pick in the draft, a matter that will come down to the bounce of ping-pong balls next month. Instead, it was Frank Ntilikina getting a three blocked, A.J. Lawson throwing up an air ball, McKinley Wright clanging one off the side of the backboard to end all playoff and play-in chances for the franchise.

The Mavericks saw their hopes of any post-season play vanish on a night where the only players logging 25 or more minutes were Reggie Bullock, Justin Holiday, Ntilikina and Pinson. Head Coach Jason Kidd made it clear that he was not involved in the decision made Friday by Cuban and GM Nico Harrison to place draft-pick priority over playoff chances. It’s not as though losing assures the Mavericks of keeping their pick. There’s still about a 20 percent chance the pick will go to New York as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade that feels like about half-century ago. If not, the Knicks will get a future Dallas first-round pick.

As of Wednesday night when the Mavericks beat playoff-bound Sacramento, the team was all in on pursuing playoff dreams. “Right now, we’ve come up short, but the season’s not over, right?’’ Kidd said after that victory. Doncic had said on Tuesday that the club knew he would never sit before the team was officially eliminated. “When there’s still a chance, I’m going to play,’’ he said.

Instead, Doncic left to an ovation one possession into the second quarter. Most of his regular rotation teammates were in street clothes. Jaden Hardy, the best offensive player left on the roster, hit a midcourt shot at the halftime buzzer — one of three three-pointers he made in the first half — and never played in the second half.

A franchise that was a national laughing stock in the ‘90s, inadvertently chasing records for futility, has surely had lower moments but fewer more embarrassing ones. It’s probably the first time in 20 years we haven’t seen Cuban challenging officials’ calls from his courtside seat.

It was before Wednesday’s game that Cuban had a rare lengthy session with the media, taking blame for some of the team’s failings this season but assuring that the team was going to pursue the playoffs until time ran out. As for the draft pick being more valuable than playing for the No. 10 spot in the West, Cuban said, “Players don’t wanna do that. Players aren’t gonna do that.’’

Well, players did exactly that after they were instructed to Friday. The club did not make Doncic available after the decisive loss. Kidd made it clear it was a difficult position that management had forced on the players.

“Luka wanted to win, we all said that,’’ Kidd said before Friday’s game. “We wanted the opportunity to find a way to get in (the playoffs). Today is the day we were told to do something different. The organization made a decision and we have to go by that.’’

The decision to essentially tank their way out of the post-season does nothing to change the fact this team probably wasn’t getting there under any circumstances. The hope that management can fashion a better roster around Doncic and Irving this summer starts, of course, with getting Irving to sign a long-term deal here. Kidd said that if he was a betting man, he would bet Irving stays here but acknowledged that the point guard has the opportunity to weigh his options.

Regardless, this team wasn’t any good when its two superstars played, going so far as to get swept by Charlotte two weeks ago. How dramatic will the changes have to be to turn this into a sound defensive team? Is that even possible in a salary cap world where Luka and Kyrie are eating up $80-90 million per season?

Right now the Mavericks are just another team that made it as far as the Western Conference finals one year, only to find out it was fools’ gold the next.

Could Dallas have won a play-in game at Minnesota next week, then beaten the loser of the 7-8 game to land the final playoff spot? Kidd said he believes so. His bosses believe otherwise. Either that or they think this team’s about to land a player with the 10th pick that keeps Irving in town and restores this club to championship contention.

On that hunch, the Mavericks gave up in front of their own fans Friday night. A little silly. More than a little embarrassing.

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

©2023 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.