CHICAGO — The NBA Draft Lottery has arrived, and the Dallas Mavericks learned where they'd be picking.
After having the 10th worst record in the 2022-2023 season, the Mavs (38-44) had an invite to Tuesday night's lottery for a chance to possibly move up to one of the top picks in this year's draft.
However, not to the surprise of fans, the Mavs stayed at No. 10 in the draft order.
But, the good news was that they got to keep the pick and didn't have to give it up to the New York Knicks because of the 2019 trade for Kristaps Porzingis. The pick was Top-10 protected. Anything below the No. 10 spot would have gone to the Knicks.
The 2023 NBA Draft will be held on Thursday, June 22, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
How we got here
With the 10th worst record in the NBA during this last season, Dallas had a 3% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. The team had a 65.9% chance of getting the No. 10 pick.
By picking No. 10, the Mavs will be able to keep it because the pick would have been sent to the New York Knicks if it dropped below No. 10.
This pick was involved in the Kristaps Porzingis trade in January 2019. It was considered to be Top-10 protected, meaning as long as the Mavs' 2023 draft pick landed at No. 1-10, it would be protected from being moved.
Since the Knicks don't get this year's Dallas pick, New York will get the Mavs' first-round pick in either 2024 or 2025. These picks are also Top-10 protected. If Dallas gets a pick in the top 10 in both of these years, then New York would get Dallas' 2025 second-round pick.
In April, the NBA fined the Dallas Mavericks $750,000 for "violating the league's player resting policy."
The league said in a statement that the Mavericks "demonstrated through actions and public statements the organization's desire to lose the [Chicago Bulls] game in order to improve the chances of keeping its first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft."
The NBA did, however, state that the league did not find the players who participated in the game were not playing to win.
When Dallas was scheduled to play Chicago on April 7, the team was not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The Mavericks initially had no players ruled out for the game against the Bulls that morning, but later on ruled out five players: Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr. and key reserves Josh Green, Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood.
