Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Two vastly different views
Mavericks look to improve draft odds, Heat making a run
DALLAS — The study in contrasts came at last Thursday’s NBA trading deadline: the Miami Heat continued to live in the moment; the Dallas Mavericks moved on from veterans.
And, yes, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in advance of Monday’s game against the Heat at American Airlines Center, tanking is an NBA business model.
Appearing Sunday on ESPN RaNBA dio, Cuban acknowledged prioritizing the upcoming draft and did not hide from the “tanking” term that some consider taboo, to the point of consideration in recent years by the league of moving away from the random-but-weighted draft lottery.
“We had to match up to our criteria of trying to position ourselves to get a lot better,” Cuban, also an investor/personality on
ABC’s Shark Tank series, said in the wake of trading center Andrew Bogut and waiving guard Deron Williams. “Then you combine that with the fact that I’ve always said, when a lot of teams are tanking, you don’t want to tank. And when there aren’t many teams tanking and everybody’s trying to compete, that’s the best time to consider trying to go for a draft pick. You can try to play as well as you can and still be in competition for a great pick.”
As Cuban dealt, the Heat stood firm at the deadline with veterans James Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters, pushing within one game of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference entering Monday’s play, in the wake of the Detroit Pistons’ Sunday home loss to the Boston Celtics.
While Dirk Nowitzki remains a franchise centerpiece, the Mavericks have moved toward younger players such as undrafted rookie point guard Yogi Ferrell and undrafted University of Florida rookie forward Dorian FinneySmith.
“Look,” Cuban said on the radio appearance, “if I wasn’t realistic about the value of a draft pick, we would have kept D-Will, we would have kept Andrew. We would be playing an older lineup, but now we’re playing our young guys.
“That supposedly is the definition of tanking: You play your youngest players to give them experience without the expectation you’re going to win. In our case, we’re playing our youngest players. But we’re playing them with the expectation that they’re going to win. I think that’s the best type of experience. And if that means we get the eighth pick or the 10th pick instead of the fourth pick, I’ll live with the consequences.”
Unlike the comments from Heat President Pat Riley last week about maximizing this season amid the Heat’s climb back from 11-30, Cuban has turned to the future, even with the possibility of the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference finishing with a worse record than No. 8 in the East.
The Heat defeated the Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals for the franchise’s first championship, with the Mavericks then defeating the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals during the Heat’s first season with the Big Three trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The teams have stood as heated rivals for more than a decade, including the Mavericks making an aggressive run at Heat center Hassan Whiteside during the opening hours of last summer’s free agency.
Whiteside said before Monday’s game that he emerged from the freeagent process impressed with Cuban’s business and NBA acumen.
“They’re both really great franchises,” Whiteside said. “As far as Dallas and Miami go, they are both championship organizations.
“Mark Cuban, he’s an amazing guy and an amazing owner. I’m privileged for them even giving me the opportunity and offering me a max deal. It was very humbling.”
Whiteside’s joked that his next goal is to come up with a product to present to Cuban on Shark Tank.
“I got to think of something,” he said. “Mark Cuban’s got some great ideas.”