Falling Backward Into a Win.
The team that got lucky
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When the Dallas Mavericks select Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft tonight, it’ll mark almost everything other than a success. The Mavericks, as a franchise, have been a wreck — sold from hands-on Mark Cuban to a Vegas-based group that wants the club as part of a gambling-based portfolio; divested of generational talent Luka Doncic by a brain-scrambled front office; witness to star Kyrie Irving’s season-ending ACL tear.
Worse, the Mavs finished 10th in the Western Conference, the very definition of no-man’s land. They were bad enough to make you want to avert your eyes but not bad enough to have any decent chance in the draft lottery. They entered lottery night with a 1.8% chance of getting the top pick,