Why the Mavericks tanking the last two games of the regular season paid off on draft night

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Back in April, the Dallas Mavericks got heavily criticized for resting their players in the last two games of the regular season when they were still mathematically in the running to earn one of the last play-in spots in the Western Conference. People said it was bad for the game, my CBS Sports colleague Brad Botkin said it was "shameful" that Dallas would make a blockbuster trade to land Kyrie Irving only to punt on the season.

Even now there are likely still people who think it was egregious for Dallas to tank the last two games, especially after the Miami Heat -- a play-in team -- made it to the NBA Finals. All of those thoughts are completely valid, especially when the whole point of sports is to win, and to purposefully do the opposite of that can seem blasphemous in this domain. However, as polarizing as Dallas' decision to tank was, it has actually paid off in the last month, culminating in an impressive draft night on Thursday.

Had the Mavericks won those last two games of the season, their first-round pick in this year's draft likely would've fallen out of the top 10 back at May's draft lottery, which would've then been sent to the New York Knicks to finalize the last bit of the Kristaps Porzingis trade from 2019. But by prioritizing that draft pick instead of an incredibly slim chance of making the play-in back in April, Dallas kept its pick and managed to address several needs on draft night.

With the No. 10 pick in the draft, Mavericks president Nico Harrison pulled off a series of smart moves to incrementally improve the roster ahead of free agency. The Mavs first traded the No. 10 pick and Davis Bertans to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the No. 12 pick. In doing so, Dallas got off the remaining $22 million owed to Bertans over the next two years, while also creating a $17 million traded player exception. With the No. 12 pick the Mavericks then selected Duke center Dereck Lively II, an athletic big man who can be the rim protector Dallas has sorely lacked, while being an ideal rim runner for Luka Doncic and Irving.

If that was the only move Dallas made of the night, it could still be chalked up to a minor success for the sole reason that they created a bit of cap flexibility by getting off of Bertans contract while not having to give up anything other than just moving down two draft spots. But the Mavericks weren't done.

A little while later, ahead of the Sacramento Kings selecting 24th in the first round, it was reported that the Kings were trading the No. 24 pick to the Mavericks in addition to Richaun Holmes, to help the Kings clear up some cap space. Dallas absorbed Holmes' $12 million contract for next season into that traded player exception created by sending Bertans to OKC and managed to draft Olivier-Maxence Prosper with the 24th pick. The Marquette forward is athletic, can defend and with development could become a consistent 3-point shooter. What's even better is Prosper already has the ideal mindset Dallas needs, telling my CBS Sports colleague James Herbert:

"There's a lot of things that I do that I feel players don't necessarily pay attention to," Prosper said. "Like, they feel like they should come in and score 20 — nah, that's not what it's all about. It's how can you come in and help a team win and impact the game. You see a guy like Christian Braun with the Nuggets, he earned his minutes by doing the little things. I'm a guy that's going to come in, that's going to defend multiple positions, that's going to play hard, that's going to cut, that's going to finish, that's going to rebound. All the things that can bring a lot of value to a team even if they've already got two superstars."

Prosper essentially fills the role of Dorian Finney-Smith, who the Mavericks traded in the deal that landed them Irving. And if he can fill that role of what Braun did for the Nuggets in their title run this season, then this pick will have been a huge success for Dallas.

Picking up Holmes from the Kings falls in line with Dallas' plan to "remake their center rotation." In one night the Mavericks accomplished that by drafting Lively and trading for Holmes. Despite falling out of Sacramento's rotation last season, Holmes is still only 29 years old. At his best, he can be Dallas' new starting center, and with the athleticism he possesses he'll surely benefit from passes and lobs from Doncic and Irving. It's a bit of a riskier pickup because Holmes really hasn't been at his peak for two seasons. But if he can find that old version of himself, the one that averaged 14.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in the 2020-21 season, then Holmes will be a major upgrade to what Dallas had last season at center.

Dallas accomplished all this on draft night because it tanked the last two games of the season. Had it not done that, the Mavericks likely would still be stuck with Bertans albatross of a contract or would've been forced to give up one of their more valuable assets to pull even one of these moves off. Instead, Dallas got a bit younger, saved a few million dollars and still has a couple more moves they could make with names like Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber and Reggie Bullock on the roster.

So while at the moment it may have seemed like the Mavericks tanking two games was appalling, it ended up being a savvy move for a franchise that desperately needs to get better in hopes of keeping Doncic happy and in Dallas.