Should The Mavs Tank or Trust The Process?

“Do the Mavericks need to lose now to win later?” That’s the fiery question Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray tackle in this episode of The Ben and Skin Show—and the debate gets heated.From the electric atmosphere at last night’s game to the shocking defensive collapse, the crew breaks down why the Mavs’ strategy might need a hard reset. Should Dallas chase wins or prioritize Cooper Flagg’s development? And what does the GM shake-up really mean for the team’s future?You’ll hear Ben’s passionate plea for a clear vision, and Skin’s brutally honest take on the aftermath of the Luka trade. Plus, the gang dives into Anthony Davis trade rumors, why Achilles injuries haunt every conversation, and the most depressing hypothetical trade package you’ll ever hear.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to be broadcasting from the Pluckers and Mesquite

(00:02):
and we want to invite you to join us. We'll
be doing a live remote broadcast from Pluckers and Mesquite.
I think it's their newest location. We'll be there from
three to six pm. And it's my birthday and I've
registered for birthday gifts, all right, all right, And so
it's it's all on Lisa Ann's website. So it's different
packages that you can buy for me. Did you are

(00:24):
you guys? Do you guys have anybody? Do you buy
any of what are those things called where you get
somebody to talk? Cuomos, cameo cameos?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah? Did you get any cameos for me?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Man?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think I deleted my cameo. They tried to tax me. Christina.
Would you do a cameo for Ben?

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (00:39):
Yeah, I'll pay you five bucks? Okay, I got one
for you, all right. No, it's coming tomorrow, okay, okay, okay, good,
all right.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
The weekly weekday update is next. But right now it's
time for this.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Reach down and grab a couple of plump tomatoes. It's
time sports ketchup, catchup on sports sports, catch catch up, bums.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm worried about what cameos turned into because it says
you can buy Jesus Christ for thirty six dollars, he's
a plumber, Michael Rappaport two hundred dollars, the Naked Cowboy
for fifty bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm interested. There's a there's things you can do. I
don't know things you can do. They maybe you can
get Siren de Murr. Siren de Murr. Okay, we probably
round her up. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Uh. In sports, the MAVs lost last night. What how's
the atmosphere though? Do you feel like the fans are back?

Speaker 5 (01:42):
I thought it was great. I thought the fans were
great last night. I thought the problem was that the
Mavericks stopped playing deference from the eight minute mark of
the first quarter till the start of the fourth. I
thought that kind of hurt him a little bit. That
they decided to go two and a half or no,
just two core in four minutes without playing any kind
of defense at all, sort of backfired and took the

(02:04):
crowd out of the game. And then when they go, hey,
I don't like being down by seventeen the Phoenix. When
Devin Booker is having an off night, you guys want
to play defense again. Then the crowd was nice enough
to get back into it, so I thought that was good.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
I want the Mavericks to lose. I know that sucks
if you're broadcasting the games. I just want them to
go get the best possible pick they can since they
have their first round pick this year. Great draft too,
and it's a really deep draft, and so all I
want to do is and I'll watch every game because
you know, I'm super excited about Cooper Flag and his development,
but I care more about the future window than I

(02:41):
do about the win now window. And I don't want
to put too much pressure on Kyrie to come back
from knee explosion to like, hey, come carry us. So
I want to see a close game where there's some
Cooper Flag highlights and he's developing and learning, and he
absolutely does look like he's turning a corner more and
more confident every game, and i'd like for them to lose.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
I've been thinking a lot about all of this because
whenever you let go of the GM, the GM has
his vision, and so now it's a new vision, and
right now it's an undefined vision, and it's unlikely that
you'll have a crystal clear vision this season. I could
be wrong, but it just feels unlikely because you don't

(03:22):
even really know who the gms are going to be.
I was thinking about, what do the interim gms do this?
Being Michael Finley and matt McCarty, they've been in the
front office, they know all the ins and outs. Do
they put together a plan moving forward and present it
to Patrick? I know if I was them, that's what
I would do and say, hey, this is the best

(03:43):
path moving forward. Do Michael Finley and matt riccarty even
share the same vision for what is the path going
forward when presumably they're both auditioning for that job. Although
I did see a report that Michael Finley was apprehensive
to be to be the enterim GM right now, whether
or not that's true, it was a very credible source.

(04:05):
But if you look at what the options are, just
my opinion, there are no good options moving forward other
than to just go play basketball and try and win.
And I understand the counter argument to that. I get
all that, because number one, you know the main re

(04:27):
they do need more talent, especially if they are going
to move on from Anthony Davis, which I don't I
think you can make an argument that you don't move
on from Anthony Davis. And the main argument for that is,
if you want, don't take my word for it, just
go spend thirty minutes watching Zach Lowe, who I think
is a very credible NBA guy, try to figure out
what to do with Anthony Davis and tell me any

(04:48):
of that is worth your time at all whatsoever?

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Which crushes your soul once you go down that road
and realize, oh, we got an untradable guy.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
We traded the best player in the leagues of that,
you know, he's not untradeable.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
It's just he's not because of the injury history in
the age, you're not gonna like the return. But if
Anthony Davis is playing for you, Zach Close says it,
we're not even a year removed from Anthony Davis being
a top fifteen player in the league. And it's the same, uh,
you know thing that we've talked about over and over.
What can you depend on? And he even brings up

(05:20):
looking at his game logs, right, which, yeah, you know
I do that on the air all the time. So
my point being is that if I, you know, subtract
emotion out of all of it, and I look at it,
I honestly think the best thing to do for Cooper
flags development is to go out and play great basketball
and try to win. And I don't know that taking

(05:41):
just jettis jettisoning Anthony Davis just to jettison him makes
any kind of sense in terms of team building.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
I just think he's only going to be there for
about forty percent of the games, that's right. So I
just don't have any confidence he can stay age well.
I feel like there's an Achilles injury percolating now, Like,
good lord, would you.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
Trade him for Grant Williams, Collin Sexton and Josh Green.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
No, No, this is what you're looking at, guys, Which
that is the most pathetic part about it. That just
shows you how bad the Lakers fleeced an Eco or
living in the aftermath, you acquired a guy that you
can only get rid of for garbage parts.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Which is depressing.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
But I would say this, anybody in that's still there
working for the Mavericks, whether they are front office or
a coach, if they gave Nico a high five on
his trade idea for Luca, they should be jettisons.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
They should not be there. I don't trust anybody.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
If you thought that was a good trade, you don't
belong to work in basketball, like the hoops ain't for you.
You just don't have it. If you were an advocate
of that trade, you gotta go.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
I'm pretty sure that there's one advocate for the trade
and he's gone. And I think if anybody else was
involved in signing off on it, they probably did so
to keep their job. That's my but I don't even
I still don't think, and I think we will one day.
I still don't think we really know who knew and
who didn't know. And I don't think we will know
for years, but I think eventually we'll it'll all come out.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
It hurts. It hurts, all right, there it is.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
What's next for the maps coming up in just three minutes,
The best five places to move to in North Texas
we'll discuss next