Mavericks' controversial plan takes shape after Anthony Davis’ injury

Anthony Davis suffered ligament damage in his left hand at the end of last week, and the Dallas Mavericks could be forced to tank for the remainder of the season. Davis is expected to miss six weeks at least, and potentially longer if he elects to get surgery. The only path forward seems to be tanking to help increase their lottery odds in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Dallas is 14-25 on the season, and their odds of making the playoffs are looking slim to none. They are 4-15 this season without Davis, and with him set to miss extended time, the losses are going to pile up.

Whether they want them to or not.

Tanking is the Mavericks' only real option

The Mavericks will be organically tanking without Davis, as they don't win much without him to begin with. On top of this, Kyrie Irving still doesn't have a return timeline in place. He is still recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered last March, and it's going to be hard to win games consistently without both stars in the lineup.

Tanking is always a controversial approach, especially since it's Cooper Flagg's rookie year, but it must be done.

This summer's first-round pick is the only pick that Dallas fully controls until 2031, and they have to hit on this draft pick to maximize their future. The Mavericks are solely focused on building around Cooper Flagg, and the easiest way for them to do this will be through the draft.

We've seen this with teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, as both teams found great supporting cast members to pair with their superstars, and the Mavs should follow their blueprint to success. They can't expect to successfully build around Flagg through mostly trades and free agency, and finding your players through the draft is the way to go.

It's cost-efficient, and it allows for players to grow together rather than having a revolving door of new players from trades and free agency. Drafting players allows you to have them on a fairly team-friendly deal for the first four years of their career, simulatenously laying the framework for them to easily sign an extension if the fit is right.

Uncovering a young potential co-star to pair with Flagg would bless Dallas with one of the most underrated up-and-coming cores in the NBA, but it comes at a cost.

The Mavericks are going to have to lose a lot of games in order to have top-five odds in the lottery, and tanking isn't something that has always gone over well with fans. A select group of Mavericks fans were furious that Dallas tanked at the end of the 2022-23 season despite still having a chance to make the Play-In Tournament, and while this situation is much different, the premise stays the same.

The best outlook for the Mavericks' future is losing games for the rest of the season rather than pushing for a play-in spot. As painful as it would be for fans to see the team miss the playoffs for the third time in three years, it would be worth it if a favorable lottery pick falls into their lap.