Mavericks can still make Knicks 2023 NBA Draft Lottery winner
The Mavericks did their best to attempt to keep their protected first-round pick away from the Knicks by tanking near the end of the regular season.
The Knicks officially will find out Tuesday night whether they will receive the prized selection as a remnant from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade with the Mavs.
While much of the NBA will be focused on where 19-year-old French phenom Victor Wembanyama winds up as the No.1 overall pick, the Knicks’ interest in Tuesday’s draft lottery will center around whether the Mavericks fall out of the top 10 selections.
The Mavericks enter the lottery with the 10th pick.
If one of the four teams behind them moves up to secure one of the top three picks in the draft, the Mavericks would slide back and the pick would be conveyed to the Knicks.
Mark Cuban and Luca Doncic sit together during a Mavericks game on March 13. AP
Billionaire owner Mark Cuban and the Mavs were fined $750,000 by the NBA in April for “conduct detrimental to the league” for sitting out various top players in their 81st of 82 regular-season game to blatantly try to miss the play-in tournament in the Western Conference to ensure the pick would not convey to the Knicks.
The Mavericks had a chance to catch the Thunder for the No. 10 play-in position on the final weekend — which would have dropped them out of the lottery if they played their way into the playoffs or at least out of the top 10 in the lottery — but they played All-Star Luka Doncic for one quarter and sat out rotation players Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Christian Wood entirely in their April 7 loss to the Bulls.
After the game, Dallas coach Jason Kidd called the move “an organization decision.”
“The Dallas Mavericks’ decision to restrict key players from fully participating in an elimination game last Friday against Chicago undermined the integrity of our sport,” said NBA VP and Head of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars. “The Mavericks’ actions failed our fans and our league.”
The Knicks notably also were docked a 2025 second-round pick by the league for violating NBA tampering rules after signing free agent Jalen Brunson away from the Mavericks last summer.
In April, Cuban pointed a finger at Brunson’s father, Rick, who was hired in the offseason by the Knicks as an assistant coach, saying, “Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over.”
The Mavericks have a 14.9 percent chance to land one of the first four picks in the lottery — including 3.0 to win the top overall selection.
Victor Wembanyama is set the be the 2023 NBA Draft’s top prize. Getty Images
Knicks president Leon Rose Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
They are most likely to retain the No. 10 position (65.9 percent), with 20.2 percent odds of sliding out of the top 10.
If the Knicks don’t receive the Mavs’ pick this year, it will remain top-10 protected in either 2024 or 2025, or else they would receive a second-round selection.
Source: New York Post
