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DALLAS -- On the heels of the greatest misfortune in the semi-sordid, 45-year history of the franchise, the Dallas Mavericks finally got lucky.
And General Manager Nico Harrison couldn't have deserved it less.
Barring another disastrous decision, the Mavericks, with a 1.8% shot at the No. 1 pick going into Monday's lottery selection, won the right to draft Cooper Flagg, thus accelerating their return to relevancy locally while simultaneously fitting Harrison's win-now window and giving an aging roster a superstar for the next decade, filling the vacuum left by Luka Doncic's exit.
Who gets all that in one package after the worst trade in Dallas sports history and one of the NBA's worst ever?
Flagg is so good, he just might save Harrison's job.
Sorry if that ruined the moment.
Will Nico's tremendous stroke of luck -- enabled by the mojo of former Mavericks star Rolando Blackman in Chicago -- earn him some goodwill?
No chance, but it will give him a better shot at winning than anything else he could have done this offseason. Probably for the foreseeable future, too.
Flagg, the consensus No. 1 pick, isn't the only player in this draft who could step in immediately and make a difference on a roster that won't see Kyrie Irving until January, at the earliest, but he's the best option. A 6-9, two-way dynamo just coming into his own as a skilled offensive player, he won't fill Kyrie's minutes. But he's everything Harrison and Coach Jason Kidd could have dreamed for a roster built on defense.
Harrison shouldn't have any problems with a rookie whose motor never, uh, flags and can guard anyone on the floor. The knock on him going into his freshman year at Duke was his three-point shot. Then he made 38.5% in his only collegiate season.
The Mavericks' great fortune could allow Kidd to slide Klay Thompson back to shooting guard with a frontcourt of, barring any trades, Flagg, Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford (El Dorado/Arkansas Razorbacks), which would rank as one of the most imposing walls in the league. But that's hardly Kidd's only option. Flagg's versatility gives him several.
The possibilities for the Mavericks, who seemed so bereft just three months ago, are suddenly, incredibly, endless again. As long as Harrison doesn't screw this up, too. If he's taught us a lesson this year, it's never assume anything wonderful.