With the Dallas Mavericks starting the 16-17 season slowly, there have been suggestions that the team should begin the rebuilding process with a high draft pick in 2017.
"Haters gonna hate. We think that you always compete," Cuban said on Sunday night. "If you're competing when the league is better like it is this year, if you don't do well, you'll be in a position to get a good pick. Which, remember, even if you have the worst record in the NBA, there's a 75 percent chance you're not going to get the top pick."
Cuban refuses to acknowledge this is a rebuilding season for the Mavericks as they're only a few games out of the eighth seed despite being 10 games under .500.
"There are so many teams that became four years away from four years away because guys just learned how to lose," Cuban said. "They stopped caring about any individual game and just got used to it, and you don't want guys developing those bad habits. We have so many young guys on this team, we want the games to mean something. Not to be, 'OK, who are we going to pull in the fourth quarter so we can lose this game?' That's not how teams develop good habits.
"The only way you overcome that is to have the ultimate superstar carry you through, and it's tough to draft the ultimate superstar. I don't see any Shaqs or LeBrons or Tim Duncans in this draft, so I don't think that's the right way to do it. You just ignore the haters, let them bitch, and go about your business."
Cuban didn't rule out making a trade for the future but isn't at that point yet.
"We'll play it by ear," Cuban said. "The one thing you don't do is panic. The one thing you don't do is make any rushed judgments. You see what you have -- right? -- and that's exactly what we'll do, and we'll make determinations from there. If we just can't get healthy, that will tell us one thing. If we can and we're just not any good, that will tell us another thing. If we can and we start rolling along and we think we can get a lot better, then that tells what we do there. You just don't know. The crazy thing you don't do is panic."
Cuban isn't worried about the Mavericks' draft position.
"This is not a race-to-the-bottom year," Cuban said. "So we get every chance to be as good as we can be. The team that has the worst record has a 75 percent chance that they won't get the No. 1 pick. That's not good odds. You'll get a top-three pick ... but there's no good reason to tank unless you think that there's three difference-makers. Not just All-Stars, but difference-makers.
"We'll see what happens across the course of the season to see if anybody emerges like that, but I'm not panicking, not rushing to judgment, not pulling the plug -- pick a euphemism."
