Mavs Lottery Watch 3.0

By: Josh Clark

DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Five games remain in the Mavericks' 2016-2017 season and they're on the cusp of getting a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft.

Dallas can do themselves a lot of favors by losing most if not every single one of them.

The Mavs are currently slated to pick 9th in June's draft, but if you look closely at the standings you'd see that there's a real possibility Dallas could pick as high as sixth. On the other hand, Dallas could end up with as low as the 12th pick, although that's not likely.

For this exercise, we'll exclude all of the teams that Dallas can't catch in the standings from a losing or winning standpoint.

Current Lottery Standings: 

6th pick: New York Knicks: 30-48

Remaining schedule: WAS, @MEM, TOR, PHI

7th pick: Sacramento Kings: 31-47 (1 GB)

Remaining schedule: @LAL, HOU, PHX, @LAC

8th pick: Minnesota Timberwolves: 31-46 (1 1/2 GB)

Remaining schedule: @POR, @UTAH, @LAL, OKC, @HOU

9th pick: Dallas Mavericks: 32-45 (2 1/2 GB)

Remaining schedule: @LAC, SAS, @PHX, DEN, @MEM

10th pick: New Orleans Pelicans: 33-45 (.5 games ahead of Dallas)

Remaining schedule: @DEN, @GSW, @LAL, @POR

11th pick: Detroit Pistons: 35-42 (3 games ahead of Dallas)

Remaining schedule: TOR, @HOU, @MEM, WAS, @ORL

12th pick: Charlotte Hornets: 36-42 (3 1/2 games ahead of Dallas)

Remaining schedule: MIA, BOS, @MIL, @ATL

The most likeliest of scenarios ends with the Mavericks picking between 8-10, which isn't a bad place to be considering how hot they got in January. If they do indeed finish with a pick in that range, these are the players you can expect to be around when they make their selection.

Lauri Markkanen: PF/Arizona/7'0"/225 lbs.

Stats: 15.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 42.3 3-pt%

Jonathan Isaac: SF/FSU/6'11''/205 lbs.

Stats: 12.0 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.5 BLK

Frank Ntilikina: PG/France/6'5"/170 lbs.

Stats: 5.7 PPG, 1.4 APG, 1.8 RPG in 17.2 MPG