Thursday morning will mark a new chapter for the Dallas Mavericks.
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An opportunity to put the self-inflicted wound that was Luka Doncic trade behind them and regain the trust of a once-broken fanbase which, while not completely ready to move on, is at least prepared to buy into the vision of what could be with their new franchise superstar.
It was never meant to be this way. And that doesn’t just extend to the Doncic trade.
Nobody, from Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James to everybody inside the room during the lottery drawing, saw the Mavericks landing the first overall pick in this year’s draft.
It was a gift from the gods. An opportunity to do it over again.
To right the wrongs of not only trading away a beloved franchise cornerstone and generational talent but doing so for an underwhelming return that proved a serious disconnect between the way the front office and fans viewed Doncic.
Dallas supporter Matt Zerai told The New York Times that it “kind of did feel like I lost a family member”.
“No one trades a franchise player in their prime like that,” he added.
Still, there was some level of loyalty among the Mavericks fanbase. Not to the front office, and certainly not to general manager Nico Harrison. But to Doncic.
That was before they knew their team had the chance to draft generational prospect Cooper Flagg with the first pick in Friday’s draft.
Now? Well, the emotional rollercoaster Mavericks fans have been on over the last year has taken another turn. Now, they have a reason to believe again, even if that reason wasn’t the product of any genius move from its front office but instead the flipping of a single coin.
“It’s an absolutely perfect fit,” ESPN’s college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg said on NBA Today.
“In fact, there’s less pressure on Cooper Flagg as the number one overall pick going to Dallas than going to Duke last year as the best player in the country coming out of high school. “Why? Because of fit. If you think about the Dallas Mavericks, what are they missing? You’ve got Kyrie Irving, you’ve got Klay Thompson, you’ve got Davis and you’ve got Lively. What are you missing? A small forward.
“He’s not going to have the pressure that most overall number ones have because he’s playing with All-Stars. He’s playing with some of the best players in the game.
“What does he need to do? He needs to be Cooper Flagg. He’s a facilitator, he’s a playmaker, he’s a shotmaker, he has defensive range, he can rebound, he can be a secondary ball-handler and play off of those All-Stars. To me, he impacts the game every single time down the floor.
“This is the absolute perfect fit for Cooper Flagg.”
Now, obviously the on-court fit is one thing. But how will Flagg, at just 18 years old, handle stepping into the spotlight in Dallas as the new face of the franchise?
The Mavericks are expected to draft Cooper Flagg. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The Mavericks are expected to draft Cooper Flagg. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Sure, that is always going to be the case for any first overall pick but we’ve already established that this is far from your standard situation at the top of the draft.
Theoretically, the Mavericks are ready to compete right now. Why trade for Anthony Davis otherwise? And, more importantly, there is also pressure because of who came before him.
There is pressure because of what Mavericks fans had taken away from them and who they now want Flagg to be. It is a lot of responsibility for an 18-year-old to shoulder.
But according to all the intel The Athletic’s draft expert Sam Vecenie has received, it sounds like Flagg is more than capable of dealing with all that outside noise.
“It’s hard to overstate how positive the intel is on Flagg across the board,” Vecenie wrote in his comprehensive, 200-page draft guide for The Athletic.
“He was an elite worker and an immediate leader for Duke from day one. Duke’s coaching staff noted that he completely changed the tenor of even practices from the moment he arrived.
“He’ll be ready for all the pressure that comes with being a franchise cornerstone immediately in the NBA.”
As for the on-court production, well the numbers and long list of accolades speak for themselves.
Flagg was the consensus National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year and ACC Freshman of the Year while he also made the ACC’s All-Defense team and was a finalist for National Defensive Player of the Year.
Meanwhile, he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists on his way to helping the Blue Devils to a Final Four appearance.
Flagg is a game-changing prospect. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Flagg is a game-changing prospect. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Vecenie has Flagg as his only ‘Tier 1’ player in this year’s draft class, which he describes as prospects that he has a degree of confidence in projecting to become an All-NBA player.
Flagg also had the second-highest grade Vecenie had given out in the last decade, behind only Victor Wembanyama.
“Flagg has a tremendous blend of ceiling and floor,” Vecenie wrote in his draft guide.
“His skill level, improvement as a shooter, defense and overall competitiveness make him about as safe a prospect as you can find. However, he also has some very high-end potential outcomes that could result in him turning into a top-five player in the league.”
The general consensus on Flagg is that while the question is just how high his ceiling may be, there is little doubting he will be able to contribute in the NBA immediately and is as bust-proof a prospect as you will come across.
The Ringer’s Kyle Mann called Flagg “the most well-rounded prospect in recent memory”.
“Flagg is the big prize of the 2025 draft, but he’s also just a hardwood pup — he turned 18 years old in late December and reclassified two summers ago to enter college a year early,” added Mann.
“He doesn’t yet have one elite skill, but his ability to do a bunch of things well puts him in rarefied air. He’s a twitchy, long, and bouncy athlete, yet he likely won’t break the scale in any one category. He also doesn’t have a significant weakness.
So even if a team already has a high-usage prospect in place, Flagg likely won’t struggle to find his way — in fact, he projects as the type of player who will elevate superstars to another level.”
Luka Doncic becomes emotional as he watches a video on the large video board that was a tribute to the former Dallas Mavericks player. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Luka Doncic becomes emotional as he watches a video on the large video board that was a tribute to the former Dallas Mavericks player. (AP Photo/LM Otero)Source: AP
That is music to the ears of the Dallas front office considering the plethora of talent at their disposal, from already established stars in Irving, Thompson and Davis to emerging ones like Lively.
In a similar vein to both Vecenie and Mann, Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor called him the “safest No. 1 pick in ages”.
“Flagg is a do-it-all forward who hustles like a madman, makes his teammates better as a passer, and has dialed in a knockdown jumper,” added O’Connor.
“He’s both the best offensive and defensive prospect in this draft class, making him the safest No. 1 pick in ages. It’s his growth as a shot creator that will decide if he reaches his All-Star floor or soars to his Hall of Fame ceiling.”
One Western Conference general manager, meanwhile, told ESPN the best comp he had heard from his scouts for Flagg was “prime Kawhi Leonard”.
All of this is to say that expectations are high for Flagg entering his rookie season and after turning their entire fanbase against them, the Mavericks have been gift-wrapped a chance to start over again.
Could that include moving on from Davis so soon after trading Doncic to get him?
Probably not. After all, Harrison continually repeated that defence wins championships and so it seems like he is set on the idea of competing for a title with Davis as the figurehead.
That, of course, relies on him staying healthy too which was a challenge already last season.
But if he’s open to the idea of moving Davis, there was an interesting conversation that ESPN’s Shams Charania had on the Pat McAfee show last week, where he was talking about the dilemma front offices face in prioritising players versus picks.
In it, Charania said “if you put Anthony Davis on the open market right now he’s fetching you four or five first-round picks”.
Could the Mavericks trade Anthony Davis? Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/AFP
Could the Mavericks trade Anthony Davis? Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP
Now, this wasn’t Charania actually reporting what he was hearing or that the Mavericks are considering trading Davis.
But Charania is the most plugged-in NBA insider after Adrian Wojnarowski stepped away from his role at ESPN, so you have to think he isn’t just throwing that hypothetical out there without at least some knowledge of how Davis would actually be valued on the trade market.
Which begs the question. While Harrison seems like the type of general manager to stubbornly double down on the Doncic trade and stand by Davis, even after the injury setbacks, could drafting Flagg change that?
After all, adding a new franchise cornerstone sets an incredibly clear timeline for the Mavs to now operate in a world where they flip Davis for a haul of first-round picks and sit on them until Irving returns.
Irving, remember, is rehabbing from an ACL injury and isn’t expected to return until mid-season and with the clock ticking on Davis from a health standpoint, it’d make sense to reset for a year and then build around a healthy Irving and Flagg with a full season under his belt.
It probably won’t happen, but at least the Mavericks now have options.
Before the lottery, they seemed to just be heading in one direction: unsuccessfully trying to push for the title in a stacked Western Conference with a 32-year-old Davis and injured Irving before eventually conceding they made a mistake trading Doncic and entering a rebuild.
But now, they already have the cornerstone of that rebuild if it doesn’t work out along with the alternative of building a new team around Flagg that can compete both in the short and long-term.
All because of one coin flip and a number of bouncing ping-pong balls. Reverse karma? Irony? Whatever it may be, Dallas has been gifted a rare second chance to get it right.
It starts, officially, on Thursday.
Watch live coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft with ESPN on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.