On today's show, they're tanking, they're not tanking, maybe they are, Cooper Flags out again. Well, I'll tell you exactly what's at stake if the Mabs move up or if they move down. Today's Locked on Mavs. This is Cooper Flag and you're listening to Locked on a dog, all of them, all fine. I think that's a good question. Good morning, Isaac. All these changes. You know, I still got my dog Dwight Pout. You are on

Maddened.

You're a question. Good morning. All these changes. You know, I still got my dog Dwight Powell.

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My name is Nick Engstead. Media member coming to the Mads for over 10 years. Today's episode, I want to talk about what's at stake for the Dallas Mavericks for the rest of the season. I don't think they're tanking. And so let's talk about the difference between if the Mavs stay exactly where they are in the tank lottery. if they move down, like they're, they go to eight, nine, ten.

If they go to five, six and rise up in some way, the difference between the players the maps could get, the quality of players. What does it mean for Flag's rookie of the year? We'll get into all that and a couple other wrinkles. But let's start here. I don't think the Dallas Mavericks are going to actually tank. It may be hard for them to actually tank. You would have to sit a bunch of guys and you would have to, I mean, you sit Cooper Flag, but Cooper Flagg is already out with his foot injury. He was out against the Pacers. The Mab still won that game. He's going to be out against this Nets team. If Mabbs ever do play this this game it seems like

they're going to be okay that they're going to fly there Tuesday morning if you're listening

to watching this they may already be there but that game is delay is potentially going to be

delayed or postponed or whatever because of this crazy storm happening but we'll see what

happens with that but this Mavs team they're not sitting like PJ Washington. They're playing

him normal minutes. They're playing Daniel Gafferty, even though he's on the injury report every single time. They brought Max Christie back, even though he was out for injury with an ankle issue. They're playing Clay Thompson. They're playing Chris Middleton and Chris Middleton's been playing really good. They're not buying him out. They're not telling him to sit out the rest of the season or whatever.

We're letting him play.

The bads are not prioritizing young guys and saying,

all right, let's just see whatever we got out of A.J. Johnson, Ryan Nimhard, Musa, Cs, Miles, Kelly's got a bunch of games left on his two-way contract. They're not doing that. At least not yet. They have 26 games left in the season. So there is a lot of time left. I'm not saying they won't ever do this. I think I should be clear on that. There's a, at a certain point in this season, I think the Mavericks will start doing tactics like this. But teams like the Jazz and the Pacers, they started doing these tank tactics way too early. Like before the All-Star break, they were doing these things and doing crazy things where they would play Jaron Jackson, Jr. Larry Marketing in for three quarters. And then they'd be winning the game and then they'd sit them in the fourth quarter. And that's why they got fined is because they were just like literally throwing the game in the middle of the game. I think if you're going to throw games, you do it by sitting guys at the beginning. Once the guys are in, you have those guys in,

you try to win that game. That's just, to me, that is like ethical, if whatever you want to call it. I think that that's the way that you end up, you tank, and the maps have not made moves like that. Unless there's Cooper Flagg, foot injury is not as bad as you think it is, they are starting to hold them out. but I think there's a lot at stake

if the Mavs don't tank

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