Cooper Flagg is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. However, former NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins believes the Dallas Mavericks should take someone else, assuming they keep the pick.
Cousins recently appeared on FanDuel TV and shared that he believes the Mavericks should take former Rutgers star Ace Bailey No. 1 overall.
Cousins shared his reasoning for ranking Bailey as a better prospect than Cooper Flagg.
“I think Ace Bailey’s the No. 1 pick,” Cousins said. “I think he’s the closest thing we’ve seen to a Tracy McGrady.”
There’s no doubt that Ace Bailey is talented. The 18-year-old averaged 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game during his one season at Rutgers, while shooting 46 percent from the field. He clearly has a high upside as a player who can score at all levels on the court.
However, Flagg has been described as a generational prospect for years and by all accounts he will be selected No. 1 overall by the Mavericks in June.
While Cousins believes Ace Bailey is the top prospect in this year’s draft class, he feels that Mavericks GM Nico Harrison should trade the No. 1 pick and bring in someone more ready to win now, instead of selecting Bailey or Flagg.
“With everything he’s already said on record as far as his window of winning a championship, it just doesn’t logically make sense to me," Cousins said of Harrison and the Mavericks keeping the top pick.
“We’ve seen crazier things, so it’s a great chance [of a trade].
The NBA Draft lottery was held earlier this month and it didn’t come without controversy.
The Mavericks entered the lottery with a 1.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick and there were 10 teams with better odds to get the No. 1 pick than the Mavericks. However, it’s Dallas that will be picking first on June 25.
This wasn’t the first stunning move involving the Mavericks this season as Dallas also traded away superstar Luka Doncic back on Feb. 1. That move has been questioned plenty since, but it appears that it is going to work out just fine as the Mavericks will now likely have Flagg to build around.
As for DeMarcus Cousins, the former Kentucky star and four-time NBA All-Star is still playing professionally overseas.
Cousins was named an all-star every season from 2015-18, earning second-team All-NBA honors twice during that span.