NBA Rumors: Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving Pushed Back Against Mavs' Tanking Strategy

Putting Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and tanking in the same sentence just doesn't sound right.

As two of the most talented, competitive players in the NBA, Dončić and Irving are searching for championship rings, not early spring visits to the golf course.

When the Mavericks acquired Irving from the Brooklyn Nets at the trade deadline in February, it was fair to assume the franchise would be going all-in for a berth in the 2023 playoffs.

By March, that mindset—if they had it in the first place—had completely shifted.

During Friday's episode of FanDuel TV's Beyond The Arc, The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor reported that the Mavs were originally planning to tank in March. Dončić and Irving pushed back against that strategy and refused to sit, per O'Connor.

"My sources say that in late March, Dallas coaches met with players to discuss a plan for Markieff Morris and JaVale McGee to play heavier minutes," O'Connor said. "That is when the tanking was supposed to begin, but Luka, and especially Kyrie, were agitated that the team was waving the white flag and both refused to sit."

The NBA launched an investigation into the Mavericks after they rested several key players, including Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Green, Christian Wood and Maxi Kleber in an April 7 loss to the Chicago Bulls that eliminated them from playoff contention.

Dončić also only played the first 12 minutes of that contest before exiting.

The Mavericks were fined $750,000 on Friday for "conduct detrimental to the league" after the league's investigation determined they "violated the NBA's player resting policy and demonstrated through actions and public statements the organization's desire to lose the game in order to improve the chances of keeping its first-round pick."

Dallas owes a top-10 protected first-round pick to the New York Knicks as the final piece of the 2019 Kristaps Porziņģis trade.

By losing to the Bulls on April 7 and then falling to the San Antonio Spurs in their final game of the regular season—a matchup in which Dončić, Irving and most of the Dallas' starters didn't play—the Mavericks finished the 2022-23 season with the NBA's 10th-worst record, increasing their chances of retaining their first-round pick this summer.

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd told reporters that it was an organizational decision to rest the team's key players against the Bulls, adding that the franchise would be resting everyone against the Spurs.

Mavs governor Mark Cuban has been vocal about the team's tanking strategies in the past. He was fined $600,000 in 2018 for publicly admitting that the franchise was tanking, and he also admitted it did so in 2017.

Dallas finished the 2022-23 season with a 38-44 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.