When Dallas Mavericks general manager secretively plotted his trade with Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, they needed a third team to help facilitate the cataclysmic workings to send beloved Luka Doncic to Los Angeles in exchange for Anthony Davis. The team they turned to was Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz — who reportedly did not know the details of the deal until it was too late.
I would be outside my body in anger if I were the Utah Jazz today. An organization that recently blew up their playoff caliber team, that positioned themselves to share the best odds at selecting Cooper Flagg with the first pick by winning just 17 games, moved from one to five in the 2025 NBA Draft order. They lost that spot to the Dallas Mavericks. But if I were the Jazz I would be directing my anger to Los Angeles, not Dallas.
The NBA has left the top of their draft to luck, so any team pinning their franchise hopes to an unreliable system start on the wrong foot. And when the league flattened lottery odds to disincentivize tanking, no team that started at one stayed there. But the complications start there, as the NBA has long-faced scrutiny from conspiracy theorists who believe the lottery system to be rigged. And outside of frozen envelopes, there is a running list of lottery moments where it appears the basketball gods have also aligned with league storylines, and these are just a few:
- 2023: San Antonio Spurs jump to one to select Victor Wembanyama, a player with close ties to those in the organization.
- 2019: New Orleans Pelicans jump to one to select Zion Williamson after trading Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.
- 2014: Cleveland Cavaliers jump to one to select Andrew Wiggins, who is then used in a deal to acquire Kevin Love. This after also making moves to the number one pick in 2011 after LeBron left Cleveland in a shocking offseason move. Cleveland received three number one picks over four drafts, just in time for James’ return to home.
- 2012: New Orleans Pelicans, under league control as they sell to new ownership, jump to one to select Anthony Davis.
Put on your conspiracy hat for a moment. Let’s say that the entirely far-fetched happened and the NBA office, staring down low ratings and a Lakers organization treading water at the end of James’ career, went to Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka and encouraged the orchestration of an international and generational superstar moving to the league’s most important franchise in exchange for lottery help. It shouldn’t be the Mavericks that league critics direct their anger — it should be at the Lakers, who like 2019, require help to keep their franchise floating from one era to the next. They’ve shot themselves in the foot time and again with roster management and have found their way out every time.
Rigged drafts aren’t a good look for the league. Dallas Mavericks leadership, in making the trade and the ways they’ve handled themselves publicly since, do not deserve to feel joy. It is a complicated thing to watch the team you’ve felt so much animosity toward the last three months get bailed out by luck, fate, or weighted ping pong balls. But any criticism or anger at the moment should be focused on the franchise who gets bailed out every time they’ve painted themselves into a corner.
