Dallas Mavericks
You’ve got to have assets to make trades at the deadline and the Dallas Mavericks were severely lacking in that department, despite Rick Carlisle’s undeniable ability to extract chicken salad from a roster of chicken s**t.
It was a mostly quiet trade deadline for the Mavs, who currently sit at sixth in the Western Conference standings. This was pretty much their lone source of excitement for the day, and it fizzled just as quickly as it came:
The Dallas Mavericks have crept into the pursuit of Sacramento Kings guard Ben McLemore pursuit, league sources say. They're a dark horse.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 18, 2016
Dallas is only two games ahead of ninth-place Houston in the standings, but if they drop out of a playoff spot, they’re also too far away from the tanking record they’d need to have to keep their top-seven protected draft pick this year.
It seems unfair to give Dallas less than a passing grade considering their lack of assets outside the obvious core of Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews, but the Mavs were unable to do anything to change their likely inevitable fate of first round playoff exit and have to be docked some points for it.
Grade: C-
Next: Denver Nuggets