Reacting to the Dallas Mavericks Winning NBA Lottery!! Trading 1st Pick, Giannis Trade Happening??

Reacting to the Dallas Mavericks Winning NBA Lottery!! Trading 1st Pick, Giannis Trade Happening??

had a couple of games last night. A little bit of insanity uh was happening. But even crazier than all of that was what happened before the games began. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh the NBA draft lottery was last night. This is the funny thing about odds and percentages. Doesn’t matter. Apparently 1.8% is a really good shot at something. Hey, Dallas Mavericks, they won the lottery after all of that. the season that was the trade that happened everything that went down with Nico Harrison in in that city. They’re gonna get Cooper flag probably. Um all right, let’s let’s talk. You know what, Lou, let’s go with you first. You’re just your reaction because I’m watching this thing live and just a mouth open. Dallas needed some good fortune, some good luck, and I guess I guess that’s why we call it a lottery. It’s a lot of a lot of conspiracy theorists out there calling foul, calling shady. Sometimes you need some luck on your heads in in Dallas Mavericks. They needed a they needed something to smile about and and this helps. This kind of puts a little band-aid over a wound that’s that’s been a a challenge this season. And and you know, they have a great opportunity at getting Cooper flag unless something crazy happens. And obviously with the Dallas Mavericks, we’ve seen crazy happen. So, we’ll see what they do with the pick. But, you know, this is good fortune for them. I love that we’re like allegedly Yeah, they’re going to get Cooper flag probably. That’s like where we are right now. Chandler. Yeah, we should. Yeah, if we know anything about Nico and the Mavs, we don’t know their next move. So, so who knows? But this is an unbelievable start. This has to feel like if you’re a Dallas Maverick fan, man, you were just in a bad dream the last three months and you just woke up and now you just got the number one pick with a 1.8% chance. It’s crazy. And again, I I think this changes everything. They have so many options now. There’s so many packages that teams could put together for him. You could keep him. Wait till Kyrie’s healthy. See how he pans out. You know, he’s the one of the highest touted guys that we’ve seen come across him. He’s obviously not in that same wimby wimy conversation, but man, he is up there and he is extremely promising for the future. So, this changes everything. And this is a really good team that’s getting a really good player or has the chance to get a really good package for him with the other assets they have to go and get someone else that we always see in trade talk. So, this is unbelievable. Uh I’m happy for them because this is somewhat of a of a bounce back of a heartbreaking season. Doesn’t get Luca back, but it it definitely makes uh I think it makes Nico’s job a little bit safer and then I think it makes the Mavericks in a much better position obviously going into next season. So, let’s let’s start the hypothetical game that they keep that they get Cooper flag and they keep Cooper Flag. Chandler, uh, would you make the argument that the Mavericks are in a better place than the Lakers? I think they’re both in a great place, but yeah, I mean, look at the Dallas Mavericks possible starting five. When Kyrie Irving, we obviously don’t know exactly when he’s going to be back. You got Kyrie Irving at the one, Klay Thompson at the two, Cooper Flag, PJ Washington, and Anthony Davis. I mean, my god. And then they have the bigs come off the bench with Lively and Gaffford. They have some guards off the bench. They have Max Christy that came in the trade that’s a valuable asset. So now all of the sudden with just this one luck of the draw, they are right back in it. And again, I don’t think this fills the void of of losing Luca Donovich. I don’t think this just gets the fan base back. It’s not like L. It’s not like Nico did anything. They literally got lucky as as possible as as they possibly could. But yeah, I mean, you go you have to consider with as soon as Kyrie’s back. I’m so excited to see this team fully loaded because think about those names I just named. They’re experienced. They’re all different positions. They’re all two-way players. And that is what Nico wanted. That is what Patrick Dumont says. CH defense wins championships. And now you have a chance to get one of these two-way players that’s supposed to be touted as the next big thing. It’s an awesome situation for for them to be in regardless whether they keep him. I I think they have to keep him. You you have to see this through, right? a guy this talented, you can’t just you can’t just get him. I don’t care if it’s for a Giannis. You’re not trading for Giannis and giving up 50 million in cap space and and and plus Cooper. You can’t do that. I think you have to keep Cooper flag and see how he pans out. Lou, why are you smirking over there, buddy? I feel I feel differently. These the same guys that just got bounced out of the playin, Chandler, minus Kyrie Irving, minus Cooper Flag. Really big names. a lot of potential in Cooper Flag, but it’s still one of those things that we just got to see it through. Like I would have I would have liked to seen them uh at least get to a point where in in the first they can get to the first round and and they can make some noise. We hadn’t seen that yet. So I’m not as optimistic as Chandler. On paper, it looks amazing. It sounds good on paper. You got a lot of names. You got a lot of lot of things that you can you can be excited about, but we hadn’t seen it. Kyrie Irving has a long recovery route back to get to the place where we we’re comfortable with knowing that’s Kyrie Irving. Other than that, they’re gonna have to move some things around like Cooper Flag is coming in and like you said, PJ Washington now you put him in a position where we got to see if this is even a fit anymore because a lot of those minutes could possibly go to Cooper Flag at that three or four, however they want to play play ball. So, I’m not as optimistic. I wouldn’t compare them to the Lakers right now. I think the Lakers are primed to continue to move forward um with the season that they’ve had. You get obviously you have a a year older LeBron, but you still have Luca and we know everything about the Lakers in the summertime. They’re very active at in the summer. They’re very active at the trade deadline. And again, we’re talking about an organization that chases rings. They don’t chase potential. So, they’re going to do everything in their power to put themselves in that position. So getting the opportunity to get Cooper flag right now for the Mavericks, it does look promising on paper. So I agree with you there. On paper, it sounds amazing, but I can’t compare them to the Lakers yet until they do something on the floor. But to be fair, that’s they didn’t get out of the playin because Kyrie Irving got hurt and it was out of the series. No doubt in my mind they get out of huge. But the 25 they have 25 and seven and five coming back when Kyrie Irving’s back. Obviously, we don’t know how he’s going to respond. We don’t know how Klay Thompson’s going to be after another year, another offseason, but I am just saying this team fully loaded is definitely interesting. On paper, on paper, it feels better. It does feel better today for Dallas. Like a competitive, if we’ve learned anything this playoffs, I don’t think the regular season means a damn. I don’t think anything matters in the beginning of the season. Look at the Pacers. Look at the Timberwolves. Like, look how good the Cavs were to how bad they are now. Like the Celtics. So, like things can change quickly. Obviously, we know that in this league, but it’s it’s definitely it kind of puts them in that conversation again of playoff hopes and and you know, obviously depending on health, it gives them hope. It fills that that hole that they just had ripped out of them of Luca. Now, here comes Cooper. It feels nice transition for the fan base for sure. Not as good as it. It feels It feels good today. We wouldn’t have had this conversation yesterday. We wouldn’t have asked the question, who’s better at this point right now, the Mavs or the Lakers, without Cooper Flag being involved in this conversation. And that’s with Kyrie Irving being involved with that. Like I said, he has a long route back. He’s at I don’t want to say the almost the tail end of his career. He’s an older guy. He’s he’s in his mid30s. It’s going to be a long ride back. And these days now with ACL’s and Achilles and all of those things, you know, that’s a six to eight month process when it used to be 10 months to a year. These guys get back faster. they don’t lose as much as as you used to. So, I I expect Kyrie Irving to have a lot of simulence in and who we’ve, you know, gotten spoiled to seeing out on the floor. But when you add Cooper Flag to that, that’ll be a big big question mark to see if he’s good enough, if he’s going to be that huge difference maker to put him over the edge of say a Los Angeles Lakers. So, very promising on paper. They should be happy today. They hadn’t gotten much sunshine lately. They should be excited, the Dallas Mavericks fans. But I don’t I don’t know about putting them right there where the Lakers are as of yet. Okay. Okay. Now, let’s do the other side of this whole thing. Let’s just say that they pull the old switcheroo, they draft him, Chandler, they draft Cooper flag, and then they immediately trade him for a superstar. Is there a world in which you can see what’s happening? And there is one superstar obviously everyone’s talking about, but yeah. And I trust in that a little bit. I know the Giannis name is hot right now, but like you’re really going to go 50 million in assets plus Cooper flag before he plays an NBA game for a guy that’s also, you know, kind of towards the end of his career. And uh imagine that for Nico Harrison. He goes and trades that, god forbid, Giannis gets hurt and then they just gave up flag. Like you can’t you can’t do that almost. Now you look into San Antonio and you see maybe Stfan Castle or or you start you start something like that for Giannis and picks like that then maybe. But the Mavs again when we did get the number two just saying I mean exactly they got two they got 14 and the Mavs also like I heard the Mavs might extend Lively instead of Gaffford when fix Gaffford kind of available. PJ Washington’s valuable Max Christiey’s valuable. So you there they do have a combination of things, but how interesting did Nico Harrison’s job just get from from Did you see how he was celebrating last night? Oh my god, that was that was real glee right there. He was and and you know what? I don’t know the dude well. I don’t know. But I’m happy for him because again, he didn’t do anything. It’s it’s luck. But like at least he now is back in the driver’s seat. He’s got the ace of spades in his hand and like he he has options like moving forward this summer. Yeah. There’s no longer just like you’re being buried alive. It’s like all of a sudden you can breathe again. Like okay. Now people see him in the grocery. Yeah. People see him in the grocery store today. They’re saying Cooper flag. They’re not saying like boo. Like you know what I mean? Like it’s it’s shifted today in Dallas. They’re not the ground. I would go that far. But it’s probably it just wasn’t as bad yesterday as it is today. Cher like because a lot of fans probably feel how we feel. It’s still that that feeling of uncertainty like, okay, so now we have the number one pick. What are you gonna do with it? Because we’ve seen you make I don’t I don’t want to say questionable decisions, but we’ve seen you make decisions that doesn’t necessarily um that we agree with as the fan base. So, they’re probably still on pins and needles with that pick and seeing what he’s actually do with it. Yeah, you’re gonna you’re gonna be a little gunshy because that was that was a trauma as a sports fan. That was a trauma, right? Like that’s not something a lot of fan bases necessarily go through just having that happen. So you you’re a little bit startled, but let’s play GM. Okay, Lou. So you are the GM of the Milwaukee Bucks. Your phone will be ringing this summer. So let’s just say that both Dallas and San Antonio are calling just like Chandler insinuated. Um you can get the number one pick, Cooper, uh Gafford, maybe some other players, or you can get the Spurs two lottery picks that they got last night, two and 14, plus Stefon Castle and maybe who knows, you put something together. What are you tempted by either of those? You got to listen and you got to see everything through. Like both from us being, you know, GMs in our houses, it sounds great, right? So, you gota you got to listen to all of those things. But again, if if I’m the Mavericks and I feel like I have a pretty solid core. I’m going to see it through with Cooper Flag and I’m going to give him an opportunity to grow and thrive. And again, you just traded away a superstar. you got a great opportunity of creating and breeding your own brand new superstar that this fan base can grow to love. Why would you kind of trade that away for what Chandler just said for a guy that obviously you know who he is and established in his career that’s going to give you a great chance to win, but that window is going to be a short window with how old these guys are. It’s going to be a three to four year window. with Cooper Flag, you can possibly have a guy from start to finish end up have his whole career being played out there and that’s going to give you a better opportunity to win games in the long term. You know, you can look there and also with with San Antonio, I think that makes a lot more sense than than the Dallas Mavericks do. So, you got to see everything through. You got to listen and you just got to see what makes what makes the most sense. So, Channel said it. He got the Ace of Spades in his hand right now. Everything should be moving. the phone should be ringing up until the draft, up until the season starts, like see everything through, listen to everything. But I like both of those scenarios. But if I’m the Dallas Mavericks, I’m keeping this pick. Can you imagine yesterday if I told you, you know what, the best three teams in the lottery, they’re going to get the top three picks. And the worst three teams are going to get four, five, six. Like, it’s unbelievable. These now teams, Dallas, playoff playin team, whatever. Philly was going to be a really good team till they got hurt and they had a dumpster fire. And the San Antonio Spurs arguably now in the same conversation as OKC with all their talent and assets and what they got going on over there. They get one, two, three in a draft for by the way it’s not just Cooper Flag. He gets all the all the love, all the tal Dylan Harper is an absolute stud. Immediate starting point guard probably in the NBA. Ace Bailey is a bucket. DJ Edgecom is an absolute freak. Like Derek Queen from Maryland. Like you can go on and on. So yes. And by the way, this hurts for like a Charlotte. This hurts for teams that slid our guy Ryan Smith, our gracious guest yesterday. That sucks. Like the guy he gets fit like like he gets the fifth pick and like again, thank God for them that it is a topheavy draft. But think about the Spurs. They could just go and get Dylan Harper and be the point guard for the future and be really good. Philly now gets an ace Bailey or a DJ and they pair that with what they have with McCain and Maxi and PG and like Joel. Like it is crazy. The good teams got good. It was a great night for the good teams. It was a bad night for the bad teams. But the Giannis, the Giannis trade again, it’s interesting. They have options, too. Like they now have all the they know, we know how good these kids are in the top three, top five of this draft. So that is interesting to them. Giannis is 30 years old. It does feel like his windows closing in Milwaukee. So they like the Mavs, like the Spurs. They they have options. And so I don’t think it’s going to happen in Dallas. So I would say the Spurs would be the move. Stefan Castle coming off rookie of the year stud. Second pick Harper stud. 14th pick’s probably going to be some value and also they’re gonna have to match the salary. Like I said earlier, it’s 50 million. It’s not just going to be it’s got to be more. I like it. San Antonio on Milwaukee. Interesting. Well, then let’s just do it from the San Antonio side of things, right? Because you could do all of the things we just mentioned or you keep those picks as is. You add some young guys to what’s already a very young but very bright future roster. Like does one of those stick out more than the other? Lou, would you would you like to go get a bonafide superstar or do you think you just keep sort of building these young guys? I think and I I think the Spurs are in a different position. You have a lot of young potential now. Go let’s go out and get somebody established. Let’s go out and get a Kevin Durant. Let’s go let’s go look around and and and see if we can put a package together for a Giannis. Somebody like we got a bunch of youth. At some point, you’re gonna have to mix in some vets, some guys that know how to win, that has leadership to get these guys to the promised land, you know. So, in that in that regard, you get the you get the best available second player that’s in that draft and you kind of you dangle him like some keys and see what you can go out there and go get to add to Wimby. You got, like I said, you got all the youth in the world. At some point, you got to start establishing yourself as a threat in the Western Conference. You don’t want to continue to be two and three years out. You want to start that clock now before Wimby and giving him the best opportunity to win. So I think the Spurs are in a different position. I think they go out and they get the best player available and they start playing ball from there. Yeah, guys. Race for safe. Say you’re going to get you’re going to hear hear that a lot. Listen, it’s a good point because right now, let’s just say that the the Spurs stay put and they take the number two pick. They’re still kind of just this young growing super talented team. They put a package together where they now have like Wimi and Giannis on the floor together with what they already have like mother of pearl like now we’re talking contender. So we go from like a setup future to a solid team going to win a lot of games obviously like they are so good then but now now you go and add a KD you go and add a Giannis with Wimby with D’Arren F like are you kidding me? like and they have so like Sohan, Vasel, Kell Johnson, Castle, number two pick, number 14 pick. They are in such an unbelievable position that they can still keep their young core, keep their young assets for the most part together while adding a top five, top 10 NBA player to make them contenders right away. Yeah, you don’t want to be in Wimby’s third, fourth year talking about potential steel, right? Like yeah, this is the season where you want to start seeing some results from bringing Wimby on and putting these pieces around him, De’aran Fox and all the like you want to start seeing why did we do this? So going to get another player that delays your clock that if you add a Ace Bailey to this, we’re still talking potential. No, you want to start seeing some of the fruits of the labor and the reason why you’re building this team out. So I think they’re in a different position. Like I said, I think they go out, they get the best player available, and they allowed that to be somebody else’s potential, and we’re trying to put ourselves in a position to win right now. Dangle that no state tax. That’s always a little fun carrot for everybody to think about. Um, okay. We know that mathematically the three biggest losers were obviously Washington, Charlotte, and Utah. And yes, shout out to Ryan Smith yesterday. I actually feel pretty bad um sort of joking around with him and then that actually came to fruition. That being said, um this way that they do this, right, this whole flatten system, the whole point of it that they started in 2019 was theoretically that if you tanked, you don’t necessarily get rewarded outright that has seemingly worked so far. Um but I’m wondering, it still seems broken to me, Chandler, and I I can’t really put my words on it. Like, why do I think this sucks? Other than the fact that the three worst teams literally fell out of the top three like that that happened. You know why I hit it? You don’t see it. Just do it on TV. Like take all these. Here we go. Like take take all this this mystery. Like I know it’s not rigged. Like I I I but like after last night like I I even I have questions. It’s like come on. Like uh yeah, let’s go trade Luca to the biggest market, the Lakers, but don’t worry, we’ll give you Cooper. Like it’s hard not to think that. Just do it on TV. What does it hurt? There’s no risk of doing that. Like at least it puts people’s mind at ease. You can eliminate any Yeah. It eliminates any question on whether this is rigged or not. So you look at these teams. Yeah, I feel bad for them. I feel bad for Ryan Smith. Like the 14% chance to 1.8% chance is crazy. Again, I do love the idea of like teams just tanking and sitting guys not getting rewarded. I also think that is bogus. I think you should play all 82 games trying to win. But again, the way this format is set, why would you? It’s a bad business move for the future for bad teams to do that. So on that side, like a front office, put my front office hat on. I totally get it. But I just think it’s just show us. Just show the people. Show the people that are watching. Show the people that are supporting them. Like show us. So there’s no question or mystery about it. I don’t think it’ll matter. You don’t complain. They got You still think they got sneaky hands in there? Yeah. We’d have found something to be wrong anyway. The reality is everybody will never be happy with some of the decisions that’s made in professional sports or some of the things that you see. There’s people out there that still think the players on the floor are rigging up games. They’re trying like we’re just lazy when it comes to how we how we dissect some of these things. And so even though some people would accept that Chandler, we’re still gonna be unhappy. We’re still gonna have something to say. So I don’t know. It would be compelling better. Yeah. Ryan Smith text me yesterday after I said, “Dude, what just happened?” Like like like it’s just it’s just he went from possibly Cooper Flag to the fifth pick like like that after six, eight months of just like losses like that. It’s just that’s brutal. Okay, but is that not the point? Like they they along with Washington and Charlotte flat out tanked. Like you can make the I mean Dallas was playing. San Antonio wasn’t necessarily tanking. They were they beat the Denver Nuggets in the final few weeks of the season. They were trying. So if it’s luck, is that not the lesson? If it’s luck, it just doesn’t say they they tried themselves in the best position possible. Not at the guaranteed position. They did what they had to do on their end. It didn’t work out. They got to move on. I do think airing it live would buy you a little bit of of grace. But eventually, the same way we do with like the lotto pics at night when the the woman or the man comes out and little balls come out. At some point, I start to think that’s fixed, too, just cuz this is the world. I’m like, “Oh, somehow this cheated.” Like she’s got definitely a slight of hand. She’s got some David Bla. Or like the only numbers in there are four. You see what we’re doing? You see what I mean? Would never be happy. She’s a paid She’s a paid actress up there. I am not buying that either. It never works. It’ll never work. But it would it would feel more transparent rather than they’re all in a secret room. They’ve given up their phones and then blammo. They’re up on the stage and that’s it. We’re like, “Okay.” Yeah. Right now we’re just forced just to believe this little envelope. I don’t like it. I don’t like it either. But I will say once upon a time we did have the the ball machine and we still are happy. So at this point we just got to deal with whatever comes out of it is more trust issues now than ever. I know. Actually we’re a much more cynical society. Lou um all right. So that was the draft lottery. It was good for some not for others. Um but we did have some games and we’re going to There was two games last night. We just spent 22 minutes talking about the lottery show. That’s how crazy that was. Oh, wait. No, there’s a tweet. Oh, there is a tweet. Sorry, Conrad’s in my ear. That’s on me. There is a tweet because people were not happy. Here we go. I’ve watched my childhood team be moved to New Orleans. I was then given the Bobcats. Sat through the worst season in NBA history. You gave that number one to New Orleans. I haven’t seen a series win since 2002. You took the All-Star away in 2017. Haven’t been to the playoffs since 2016. Obviously, this gentleman is from Charlotte or or woman. Um, I mean that is ultimately I don’t know what to tell someone like that because we also don’t want people to straight up tank, right? Like that’s where we’re stuck. I don’t have a fix. I’m just saying that’s kind of where we are. Yeah. Like we we again I agree you shouldn’t get rewarded for losing now. Is that going to make it more fair and more of a middle class in the NBA like right now? Like last night was so topheavy. Like the rich got richer and the poor got poorer last night. Like that was that was it was it wasn’t it didn’t feel right. I I wasn’t even thinking of as a possibility, Michelle. Like I’m like I never imagined last night it going Dallas, San Antonio, Philly. Like that that is just ridiculous. Yeah. Well, you didn’t have the uh you didn’t have this candle lit in front of your TV. When you do that, it changes the entire way. Destiny, please. Who’s Who’s the other candle right there? Uh Tina Fay. Just a big fan. Just a big fan. Just a random. Um All right. At least Charlotte has a team. At least Charlotte has a team. You know what? Is that the Is that the saving? Okay. Well, that’s what we’re going with. Guys, we are going to get to the games. We’re going to take a quick break. On the other side, we will dissect Nick’s last night. We’ll be back. it

On May 13th, 2025 episode of ‘Run It Back’ on FanDuel TV, co-hosts Michelle Beadle, Chandler Parsons, and Lou Williams talk about the miracle of a 1.8% chance that the Dallas Mavericks got the #1 overall pick in the draft.

FULL EPISODE HERE: https://youtube.com/live/tS6QD8Ghudg

CHAPTERS
0:00 DALLAS MAVERICKS WIN NBA DRAFT LOTTERY WITH 1.8 PERCENT CHANCE
2:38 ARE MAVS IN BETTER POSITION THAN THE LAKERS WITH 1ST PICK?
8:07 DO MAVS TRADE #1 PICK?
10:45 BETTER TRADE PARTNER FOR BUCKS WITH GIANNIS – SPURS OR MAVS
14:24 SHOULD SPURS TRADE THE #2 PICK?
17:20 BIGGEST LOSER OF NBA DRAFT LOTTERY

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