Mavericks' daunting draft lottery curse is poised to intensify at worst possible time

The Dallas Mavericks' season went completely haywire after trading away Luka Doncic and Quentin Grimes in consecutive moves at this past season's trade deadline, and now the Mavericks have a glaring void to fill from a shot creation and ball-handling perspective. Brandon Williams was a surprising standout for Dallas down the stretch of last season, but it's up in the air as to whether he can continue his same offensive production with consistent starter minutes, and Jaden Hardy is the only other healthy guard on the team under contract for next season currently.

The Mavericks will get Kyrie Irving back from his torn ACL sometime next winter, hopefully, but the team will undoubtedly need another wing or guard in their lineup who can handle the rock and create offense for others until then. The most obvious place to look for this type of player will come virtue of the NBA Draft on June 25, as the Mavericks currently have the league's 11th-best odds in the NBA Draft Lottery.

The lottery will be held on Monday in Chicago at 6 p.m. CST, where Mavericks legend Rolando Blackman will be representing the organization, as Dallas is shying away from letting Nico Harrison represent them for obvious reasons.

Mavericks need lottery luck badly but history says otherwise

Despite being in the NBA for almost 50 seasons now, the Mavericks have not moved up once in the entire history of the NBA Draft Lottery, as they've either stayed exactly where their odds lay or have moved down. While the disclaimer of Mark Aguirre being selected first overall by the Mavericks in 1981, when Dallas had the worst record in the NBA the previous season, is duly noted, the Mavericks have still never surpassed their lottery odds.

While the Mavericks and their fanbase desperately need a string of luck and deserve some, given everything that has transpired since February 1, there simply isn't that big of a chance that Dallas will move up and be able to select someone who can really change the course of their franchise next season.

This is definitely a loaded draft class and the Mavericks would still have some great prospects to choose from him if they stayed where they are at or moved down in the draft like history would say, but it's harder to get a day-one impact player or future All-Star in that range compared to if they jumped up in the lottery into the top four.

While it's not impossible, the Mavericks have an 8.5 percent chance at jumping up inside the top four of this draft, and only a 1.8 percent chance at landing the top pick. It'd be a whole other discussion if the Mavericks come out of Monday with a top-four pick, as any of the projected top-three (maybe top-four) players in this draft have superstar written all over them at some point in their careers.

However, Mavericks fans need to prep for the most likely scenario in this situation, which is staying put or moving down, as there's no reason to believe the Mavericks will move up this year based on how unlucky they've been recently. That's not to say one should approach Monday's draft lottery with pessimism, but fans should start eyeballing prospects in the 10-15 range of mock boards compared to at the top of the draft for Dallas, as it's far more realistic and is the only reality the franchise has known through 45 seasons.

The Mavericks could move up on Monday if the wind blows a certain way, and the franchise's fanbase certainly deserves it, but that conversation will have to wait till after Monday, and fans should be realistic about Dallas' probable fate in this instance.