Cooper Flagg is the rare NBA prospect who would be a great fit on any team. Flagg proved he can excel in a high-usage, on-ball role offensively during his one season at Duke, but he doesn’t need the ball to make an impact. The Maine native built as reputation as a generational talent for everything he does away from the ball, with phenomenal instincts as a help defender and a sixth-sense for forcing turnovers, paired with cutting, spacing, and smart ball movement as a complementary offensive player when he’s not acting as his team’s lead engine.
Still, some organizations were better prepared to build around Flagg than others entering the 2025 NBA Draft lottery. The idea of the Dallas Mavericks winning the lottery from the No. 11 spot with a 1.8 percent was almost too far-fetched to entertain. Now it’s a reality.
The Mavericks’ shocking win in the lottery is sending the NBA into a tail-spin. Dallas was the laughingstock of the NBA after their horrible Luka Doncic trade, causing a revolt inside the fanbase while lead executive Nico Harrison became the biggest punchline in sports. The Mavs are now set up with an even better future face of the franchise than Doncic, but Flagg’s arrival also brings a lot of tough questions.
Teams that “win” the No. 1 pick are usually building with the future in mind. Instead, Dallas is already all-in on the present. They traded most of their future draft picks away to build around Doncic, and after Harrison decided to trade him, Dallas is now all-in on a couple of aging veterans in Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. Irving tore his ACL shortly after the Doncic trade, and will likely miss all of next season.
Harrison staked his reputation on the Doncic-Davis swap, saying “time will tell if I’m right.” Instead, the lottery results bailed him out before the league ever got a chance to find out. We’ve seen so many teams fumble a generational talent at No. 1 in the draft before. Here’s a road map for how the Mavs should act after lucking out into Flagg.
Fire Nico Harrison
It isn’t necessarily a bad thing that Nico Harrison has a big ego. He likely never would have rose to his position of power at Nike or with the Mavs without believing so fully in his own grand vision. After winning the lottery for the Flagg, though, Harrison’s ego threatens to undercut the best long-term interests of his new franchise star.
The Mavs should have fired Harrison before he made the Doncic for Davis swap. He should have been fired again at the end of the season given the disastrous results of a trade that took Dallas from the NBA Finals to the lottery. Somehow, everything worked out for Mavs fans, but the only way to build around Flagg is to start by firing Harrison.
Harrison’s heels are way too dug in to make unbiased decisions. This is now Flagg’s franchise, and his two best teammates in Davis and Irving do not fit his timeline. Harrison said he made the Doncic trade because he believed it increased the Mavs’ championship odds for this season. Obviously, that completely blew up in his face. At this point, Dallas needs to ditch its flawed present and prioritize its future. Harrison is just too biased to be trusted to do that.
Trade Anthony Davis
The Mavs’ best move was trading Anthony Davis from the moment Irving went down with injury. Irving will turn 34 years old in March, and he’s likely to remain sidelined until then as he rehabs his torn ACL. Davis is no spring chicken either at age-32, and he deserves to be spending the end of his prime playing for a contender. Dallas, even with Flagg, isn’t going to seriously compete for anything next season with Kyrie sidelined.
Davis has two more seasons under contract plus a player-option for $62.7 million in 2027-28. It’s hard to say what the market would look like for an injury-prone star at his age, but hey, we just saw Davis get traded for Luka freakin’ Doncic, so maybe his value around the league shouldn’t be doubted. Getting off Davis for future assets would give the Mavs more ammo to build a great team when Flagg is in his prime. That’s not going to happen for years for a player who doesn’t turn 19 years old until Dec.
The idea of trading for Davis was wildly bold at the time. It was a failure once Irving got injured, and he’ll never have better trade value again than he does right now.
Start to rebuild the asset base for the long haul
The Mavs don’t control their first-round draft pick from 2027-2030. Dallas’ 2027 pick was sent to Charlotte for PJ Washington, the Thunder have swap rights on their 2028 pick, the 2029 pick will be swapped with Houston or Brooklyn, and the 2030 is owed to San Antonio or Minnesota. Dallas does have a bonus Lakers pick in 2029 from the Luka trade, but that isn’t enough to build around a player like Flagg.
In a potential AD trade, Dallas should obviously be looking for picks and young players. The Mavs have the benefit of taking picks years into the future because Flagg is so young, and they can always trade those picks for players as Flagg develops.
The last time the Mavs landed landed a generational talent in Doncic, they rushed to trade picks for Kristaps Porzingis to give Luka a chance to win early in his tenure. Harrison did a phenomenal job of digging his way out of that deal, starting with the Irving trade, the Dereck Lively II pick, free agent signings like Derrick Jones Jr., and subsequent deals for Washington and Daniel Gafford.
Dallas doesn’t need to make things as difficult this time around. They should try to get as many bites at the apple as possible, in part because those future picks can be eventually be dealt to get Flagg a co-star that fits his timeline.
The Mavs should prioritize Flagg and Lively in the front court. They should seek to take fliers on young offensively-tilted lead guards who other teams might discount for their defensive limitations (Flagg and Lively can handle the defense). Players like Gafford and Washington should be flipped for assets, too, and it makes sense to trade Irving as well once he proves he’s healthy.
Flagg grew up a diehard Boston Celtics fan. Dallas was spoiled with Dirk Nowitzki’s loyalty, and it sure seems like Doncic wanted to spend his whole career there, too. They shouldn’t bet on that happening again with Flagg. If the Mavs can’t build a winner around him, he seems more likely to go find another team that will either in a trade or in free agency. The disaster scenario of Flagg signing with the Celtics at the start of his prime should scare the Mavs prioritizing his future now rather than Harrison’s ego.
The Mavs made a very shortsighted trade by dealing away Doncic. They can’t make the same mistakes with Flagg, and that starts with firing Nico and building for Flagg’s prime at the cost of whatever this Mavs’ current core is worth.
