The Dallas Mavericks aren’t big fans of the play-in tournament

The Dallas Mavericks aren’t fans of the play-in tournament. 

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and star player Luka Doncic are suddenly unabashedly opposed to the NBA postseason play-in tournament. This story of sour grapes hit the news cycle on Tuesday with Doncic first chiming in with his thoughts on the new playoff process, followed by the boss man coming to the defense of his young star.

Then ol’ money bags himself gave his thoughts on the new playoff system, backing up Doncics’ earlier sentiments.

"“The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule,” Cuban told ESPN. “Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top six since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So, players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days.”“In hindsight, this approach was an enormous mistake,” Cuban said."

This all seems far too convenient coming from an organization that has hovered around seeds 7-10 for most of this shortened NBA season. Currently, the Mavericks are 7th in the Western Conference (29-24) with 19 games remaining in their season.

Why not express these feelings when your team was ranked a little higher in the conference? Why now?

Here’s why. Neither Doncic nor Cuban ever expected to be right back in 7th place this late into the season, especially after the run the Mavs had in the bubble during the continuation of the 2019-20 season. The Mavs ended last season as the 7th seed, and now here we are just about three-fourths of the way through the 2020-21 season, and they are right back in the same spot they were roughly six months ago.

Doncic has received so much praise for his individual play, and that is all well and great. We hear all the accolades, record-breaking, and comparisons to all-time greats such as Larry Bird. But what we have rarely heard is the criticism. The same criticism other star players like Kevin Durant, LeBron James, James Harden, and others receive when they fail to elevate their teams to higher levels. Where we especially see this is in the postseason.

Doncic had a great playoff series against the LA Clippers last postseason but ultimately did not get it done. Yes, Kristaps Porzingis was out and missed most of that series. Injuries are part of the game. If you’re that dude, you have to find a way to get it done. And maybe he will eventually, as he is still quite young. Only 22 years of age.

But this is what separates the true greats from the very good. Larry Bird was able to help turn the Boston Celtics around in his rookie year, and this was before Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish joined the team. Nate “Tiny” Archibald was on that team to be fair, but just the year before the Celtics finished the season 29-53. In Bird’s rookie year, the Celtics finished 61-21 due in large part to Larry Legend.

So, can we please slow down with all the praise over Doncic dropping a triple-double every third game? Please? Yes, it is nice, it’s flashy and he is entertaining. But he’s not that guy just yet. Once Doncic shows the ability to lift his team to win in the postseason, then we’ll have that talk. Until then, lets everybody chill out.

He’s a great young player, and he puts up nice stats, but 90 percent of the league could average 20-25 points per game if called upon to do so each game. But everyone has a role, and not every player’s role is to have the ball in their hands every possession. That is not how it works.

So, please Mavs let’s stop the bellyaching and start winning a few more games. Can we do that?

Show us that you should be a higher seed, and not relegated to the play-in stage of the postseason. Don’t tell us how much you dislike or don’t understand the play-in going into the last 20 games of the season when your owner is one of the people who voted to approve the play-in tournament in the first place.