Dallas Mavericks: Should the Mavs fear the play-in tournament?

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has expressed dismay at the NBA’s looming play-in tournament. The timing of his comments followed star Luka Doncic’s own concerns and confusions about the existence of this addition to the league’s schedule, in spite of the fact that the play-in was unanimously approved by the NBA’s board of governors (including Cuban himself).

On Monday, Doncic had this to say when speaking with ESPN:

"“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in. You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs. So I don’t see the point of that.”"

Cuban doubled down on Doncic’s opinion:

"“The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule. Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top 6 since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days. In hindsight, this approach was an enormous mistake.”"

For some background, let’s go over what the play-in tournament is. In its first edition last season, the nine seed would have to win two games and the eight seed would have to win just one, giving the higher seed a sizable advantage. Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns put up an incredible effort to get in, but even their impressive 8-0 run in the Orlando bubble wasn’t enough. The eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers ultimately held off the ninth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies by winning the first and decisive game.

Should Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks fear the play-in tournament?

This season’s version of the play-in tournament has been further expanded. This time around, the seven-seed and eight-seed teams after the conclusion of the regular season will play each other one game for the right to be the ultimate seven-seed, with the losing team getting another chance in a third game. The ninth and 10th-placed teams will play for the right to be the third game against the loser of the seven vs eight game, while the loser will be eliminated.

The play-in concludes when the winner of the crucial third game between the loser of the seven vs eight game and the winner of the nine vs 10 game takes the eighth seed.

There’s a lot going on here, but it’s an effort to give more teams a chance at the playoffs and reduce the number of teams out-and-out tanking. Ultimately, these might prove to be bad things for the Dallas Mavericks.

Let’s take a look at why Mark Cuban and his Mavs in particular might fear the play-in.