The Dallas Mavericks are tanking. They’re bad, and they’re tanking. That is nothing to be ashamed about, either.
After being one of the most competitive franchises over the last 20 years — including winning a championship in 2011 — the team has bottomed out. Dirk got old, they (mostly) struck out in free agency (whattup, Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews), and they determined that after winning it all earlier this decade they’d try to retool in ways that other championship teams didn’t.
They let key players walk in the pursuit of different guys who could not just sustain, but improve on the franchise’s long term trajectory.