With Mavericks dropping season finale to Spurs, Knicks will likely lose 2023 first round pick
The Dallas Mavericks closed out their season with a 138-117 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon.
With that, they finished the season with sole possession of the tenth worst record in the NBA (38-44).
As a result, the Knicks will likely lose Dallas’ first-round pick in the upcoming draft that they received as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade.
Dallas owes the Knicks a pick that is Top-10 protected. As noted by SNY's Ian Begley, the Mavs have a 65.9 percent chance of staying at 10 on NBA Lottery night. There is a 19 percent chance they fall to 11th and a 1.2 percent chance they fall to 12th.
The Mavericks are under investigation by the NBA after resting most of their regular rotation players prior to Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, when they had Luka Doncic play just 13 minutes. None of their stars played in Sunday’s loss as former Knick Theo Pinson led the team with 40 minutes.
Considering the Mavericks were in the Western Conference Finals last season and were the No. 6 seed in the conference when they traded for Kyrie Irving, this has become a massive collapse for the organization.
The team has now missed the postseason for the first time since the 2018-19 season when Doncic was a rookie.
The Knicks, on the other hand, finished the season with a record of 47-35 and will open up postseason play on Saturday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
