Dallas Mavericks: The word tank needs to be banned by Mavs fans

The Dallas Mavericks are not going to tank, even if they have no shot at the playoffs. This isn’t rocket surgery.

The NBA Draft this year will have one of the most hyped players that I can remember during my life time in Zion Williamson. The forward from Duke University is a skilled basketball player with athleticism that most of the world can only dream of.

The Dallas Mavericks will not have Zion Williamson on the roster next season. Y’all are welcome to dream as much as you want, but the fact stands that Zion will not be playing for the Mavs after his Duke days.

Outside of Zion, there are a couple other players that look like they are ready to step into the NBA and be solid players, including R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish, Ja Morant and maybe a few others. As always, there are players with upside in the draft, but this year does seem to be less stacked than in years past.

Dallas had a pretty good idea of this going into the 2018 NBA Draft. They also had a pretty good idea that this Luka Doncic kid was going to be a pretty good basketball player. When the Mavs traded this year’s 1st round pick, it was with the expectation that they would not be drafting this year. No future plan was put into place.

When Dallas made the trade for Kristaps Porzingis before the trade deadline, it was for first round picks in 2021 and 2023. This trade was done so that those picks would convey in the first year that the trade was agreed upon. Once again, the Mavs no longer have any desire to be in the draft lottery.

In 2019, 2021 and 2023, the Dallas Mavericks will not have a first round draft pick. That is as bluntly as I can say the thing that people need to hear. Even if the Mavs finish well outside of the playoff race, nothing is going to change that truth.

Dallas doesn’t want to lose the rest of the way for so many reasons. Luka needs to finish out his rookie year, Porzingis needs to see that this is a winning program, we would need to lose essentially every single remaining game to have a shot at the bottom 5 and many more reasons.

The Mavs are not going to tank. The word “tank” will from here on out be referred to as “the T word” in Dallas. Don’t be the guy that uses the T word in public or on Twitter.