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Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went on the "Dan Patrick Show" on Wednesday to discuss his team and the NBA Draft Lottery while also sharing his opinions on tanking. In typical Cuban fashion, he didn't hold back. Cuban revealed that he's not a particularly big fan of the lottery, but accepts it with that being the best thing they have at the moment.

Cuban also revealed a particularly interesting tidbit of information. He said that once the Mavs knew they weren't going to make the playoffs, they started to tank in an attempt to improve their draft position. The Mavericks have only missed the playoffs twice since 2001 so this was surprising to hear from the owner of a team that is used to winning at all costs.

Patrick and Cuban went back and forth with some ideas of how to improve the draft. Patrick had an interesting idea of rewarding teams that win games after they're eliminated from the postseason, because they're at least trying to put a good product on the floor. Cuban had issues with that and this is when he revealed Dallas tanked.

"Once we were eliminated from the playoffs we did everything possible to lose games," Cuban said. "If we did it upfront, if we knew this was a rebuild season and we just did it up front, you kinda know what kinda team you have. If you can get eliminated early and then start building momentum. You can finish your season 30-10 and end up with a boatload of ping pong balls."

When Patrick asked Cuban how he tanked he gave the answer that everybody knows. "We played our young players." When teams start playing their youngsters, that's typically a great sign of tanking, especially when it's a team like Dallas, which is usually trying to make the playoffs late in the season.