Dallas Mavericks Are Not Tanking; According To Owner Mark Cuban

It’s been a rough start to the season for the Dallas Mavericks. At 3-13, they own the worst record in the entire NBA; not exactly a title most teams want to claim. Naturally, a few NBA conspiracy theorists are already thinking the Mavericks are “tanking” this season in order to get a better draft pick.

Not a chance claims Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

"Haters gonna hate. We think that you always compete. If you're competing when the league is better, like it is this year, if you don't do well, you'll be in a position to get a good pick. Which, remember, even if you have the worst record in the NBA, there's a 75 percent chance you're not going to get the top pick,” Cuban said.

Because of the NBA Draft lottery, “tanking” a season is not as easy as it sounds. Mr. Cuban is correct because just having the worst record in the league doesn’t guarantee the top draft pick at, like we see in the National Football League.

"We'll play it by year. The one thing you don't do is panic. The one thing you don't do is make any rushed judgments. You see what you have -- right? -- and that's exactly what we'll do, and we'll make determinations from there. If we just can't get healthy, that will tell us one thing. If we can and we're just not any good, that will tell us another thing. If we can and we start rolling along and we think we can get a lot better, then that tells what we do there. You just don't know. The crazy thing you don't do is panic,” Cuban said.

The Mavericks, who have lost eight of their last 10 games, have not made it out of the first round of the playoffs since the 2010-11 season when they won the NBA Championship over the Miami Heat.