NBA writer finally admits why the Mavericks' trade plan will be disastrous

Nothing is going right for the Dallas Mavericks this season, and that's prompted fans to call for the team to tank for their first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. They won't fully control another first-round pick until 2031, which is putting a lot of pressure on the Mavs' front office next summer.

This also means there's a lot riding on how the Mavericks will treat this season. If they tank now, they can be assured a decent draft pick. At this rate, the Mavericks can be a play-in team at best. Realistically, they aren't going anywhere this season. Even when Kyrie Irving comes back, it's going to have to take a lot more to save this Mavs season as we see it now.

Sam Quinn, an NBA writer for CBS Sports, says that the Mavs can go hard now or end up paying for it in the future because they didn't focus on securing a top choice in 2026. Quinn compared what the Mavs will look like compared to the San Antonio Spurs in the next four years, and it's safe to say that San Antonio will be competing for the next two decades due to the way they've built their young core around Victor Wembanyama.

Mavericks competing now could cripple their future

In response to a tweet about the Mavericks going all in to compete this season and not tank, Quinn strongly disagreed. This tweet was talking about some intel that indicated the Mavericks seem more interested in competing than selling off pieces to increase their lottery odds, and he thinks that could prove to be disastrous down the line.

"The sort of thing that feels really good in the moment and not so good in 2029 when you’re going into San Antonio for Game 1 of a playoff series against a Spurs team with three or four All-Stars severely outgunned," Quinn said.

As tough as it is to admit, the Mavs probably don't even have much of a path to the playoffs. Irving won't come back until 2026, and it's already looking like a narrow path, if any. It also doesn't help that Anthony Davis has been in and out of the lineup with multiple injuries. Cooper Flagg has lived up to the hype and then some.

The truth is, the Mavs need to work to build around Flagg and not destroy his future by not giving him a top draft pick to work with. His historic 42-point performance against the Utah Jazz at 18 years old should say it all about the ultra-bright future he has in Dallas. His performance was something Luka Doncic couldn't even do as a rookie.

Davis has been in the middle of trade talks for weeks now. If they trade him in the middle of the season, the Mavs must at least get some draft picks to save their future. Trading a player of Davis' caliber in the middle of the season doesn't usually happen in the NBA, but of course, Doncic was traded in the middle of the season, too, making everything unpredictable at this point.

The Mavs' plan to compete this season might just backfire on them completely. Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi need to come up with a plan to build around Flagg with Irving and Davis well into their 30s, and they can't afford to miss on this year's draft pick.

The Spurs are already set with Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, De'Aaron Fox, and Stephon Castle. It's possible they could compete with the Oklahoma City Thunder for a long time. The Mavs have no choice but to capitalize on their draft pick in 2026 to even have a fighting chance to compete with those two squads.