The NBA are set to investigate the Dallas Mavericks after they rested several star players in the loss tot he Chicago Bulls which ended the team’s chances of reaching the playoffs.
On Friday night, the Mavericks fell to a 115-112 defeat against the Bulls, which eliminated Dallas from NBA Play-In contention. The Mavs entered the contest tied with the Bulls for the 10th-best lottery odds and the franchise owe the New York Knicks a top-10 protected pick as the final payment for the Kristaps Porzingis trade, who now plays for the Washington Wizards.
Dallas head coach Jason Kidd declared it was an ‘organisational decision’ to rest the majority of the teams’ regular starting and key bench players. He suggested the move was made by owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison.
On Friday morning - prior to the clash with Chicago - the Mavs announced All-Star Kyrie Irving, shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr., small forward Josh Green, power forward Maxi Kleber and center Christian Wood would all sit out against the Bulls for precautionary reasons. Superstar guard Luka Doncic played the first 12 minutes and 35 seconds before he was also rested for the remained of the game.
With suspicions raised given the context of the Porzingis trade, the NBA announced it was investigating the mavericks over the decision toe essentially throw a crucial game. On Saturday night, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said: “The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks' roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night's Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions.”
Kidd added the Mavs do not plan for Doncic or any of the players who were absent against the Bulls to play against the San Antonio Spurs in the final regular season game of the season. After the game, he said: “It's not so much waving the white flag.
“It's [that] decisions sometimes are hard in this business. We're trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward.”
Mavericks governor-owner Cuban once paid a $600,000 fine in 2018 for publicly admitting his franchise were tanking, but he shut down suggestions his team were doing so again. Tanking is when teams purposely lose in the short term, usually over a season, to obtain higher picks in the NBA Draft which will ultimately help them pick young talents who will lead them to long-term success.
“The guys don't want to do that,” Cuban said Wednesday. “Players aren't going to do that. Players don't do that.”
