BAD News Keeps Rolling In For The Dallas Mavericks

BAD News Keeps Rolling In For The Dallas Mavericks

[Music] Things are not good at the American Airlines Center as the Mavericks fall to 1 and three on the 202526 season. Welcome into Mavericks today by chat sports. Jeffrey Cooperstein here. Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. We’re going to talk about it. We’re going to talk about how they can fix it. We’re going to talk about a little Cooper flag injury update as well here on today’s show. But win or lose, we are always covering this Dallas Mavericks team. Join the over 32,000 people that have subscribed to the channel right now and hit that sub button at youtube.com/mavstv. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, whether it’s ugly, you’ll find the honest truth right here on this channel. It was a valiant effort from the Mavericks last night who were down 20 in the fourth quarter and they got it back to within one. I believe it was 95 94. So, OKC scored the final six points of the game to get a seven-point win over the Dallas Mavericks. And you can see on your screen the statistics that uh the leading statistics like Shay Gildress Alexander didn’t have a great game. The Mavericks really got hurt by Chad Homegrren and Isaiah Hartenstein. That’s really how the OKC Thunder ended up winning that game and they improved their perfect record on the season. And the Mavericks fall to one and three. Anthony Davis with 26 points and 11 rebounds, three assists on the night. PJ Washington 15-9 to go along with three assists. You You can see Cooper Flag is not on your screen right now. And we’re going to talk about Flag here in a minute because boy, it was ugly. And it may be getting even uglier. The reason that the Mavericks were able to even make this a game when they were down 20 in the fourth quarter was with this fourth quarter lineup right here. D’Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy, Max Christie, PJ Washington, and Anthony Davis was the lineup that Jason Kidd elected to roll with when the Mavericks were down. I believe it was like 92 to 72 there early in the fourth quarter, and they were able to make a little run out of it. You got an offensive spark from Jaden Hardy, which we know he’s able to do. D’Angelo Russell was effectively running the offense even if his shots weren’t falling. And then Anthony Davis was being aggressive, getting into the paint, and doing what Anthony Davis does. That’s how they were able to get into the game. And again, you notice something. Cooper flag not on the court for this. Now, he did come onto the court in the final two minutes as a uh defensive substitution when they were going offensive defense there trying to win the game, but Flag did not make an impact on this game. And I thought it was interesting that the clo the lineup that actually got the Mavs back with to within striking distance involved Jaden Hardy and D’Angelo Russell. Uh Max Christie had an interesting quote after the game after the Mavericks fell. Uh he he said he uh in addition to this quote, he said, “The Mavericks are playing with a lot of stress and they need to do a better job of alleviating that stress.” He also said he’s not worried, but there is a sense of urgency with this Mavericks team after falling to one and three. But back to this quote here with playing with a lot of stress. Uh yeah, I can see that the Mavs are playing with stress and they’re absolutely pressing. They’re trying to get out of the rut that they’re in to begin this season. But there’s a couple of reasons why I think this team probably playing is playing with a little bit of stress. Number one, I think the stress was created by the general manager and how he constructed this roster, how he told us defense won championships and how he said this is an instant championship contender and they’re in a win now scenario. Like that does put pressure on the players whether you like it or not. and the general manager put the expectations on this team that they would be contending for titles this season, next season, and the season after that. So, that instantly puts pressure on the players right away. And the players put the contender label expectations on themselves. Klay Thompson said there’s no reason this team can’t compete for a championship. There was championship talk from the likes of Anthony Davis, from Max Christie, from Kyrie Irving there at media day and during throughout the preseason that said that this team could be a true contender. That simply just isn’t the case. And I really hope that this team is able to kind of get out of this rut and they’re able to figure out a way to try to start winning some games. and it’s going to start and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on them on Wednesday against the winless Indiana Pacers as well who are also dealing with a ton of different injuries. Look, at the end of the day, I think MAS fans deserve an instant contender because that’s what they were promised by Nico Harrison. That’s what they were promised by Patrick Dumont. That’s what they were promised by their own players and Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson and Max Christie and the like. So, I think that Mavs fans aren’t happy and sort of rightfully so. like they were told this team was going to be competing for a championship. They were told this team’s going to be competing at the top of the Western Conference. They’re nowhere close to that right now. There’s only four games in the season. You do have 78 of them left. Uh they got to figure out some things quick though or they’re going to dig themselves in a hole that they just simply won’t be able to get out of. I hope I’m wrong. I just don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel right now. And that’s not to say I it won’t change, but right now there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for this team. I hope they can just get out of the rut, man. I really, really do. Uh, we will be live for tomorrow’s game, by the way. The final game of the Mavericks 5game home stand to start the season. 7:20 p.m. Central time will go live for a 7:30 p.m. tip off. Rick Carile and the Indiana Pacers come to town to take on the Mavs. So, join us, subscribe, turn on your notifications so you know when we go live. What is the fix for this Mavericks team? I don’t think there is one specific fix, but I do think that this is the biggest thing that is plaguing them. I think it starts by putting D’Angelo Russell in the starting lineup. No matter how inconsistent he is shooting wise, you just need the ball handler in your lineup. We have seen it over four games how much of a difference DLO makes. I saw a stat from Bobby Carala. I can’t remember the exact stat, but basically in summary, when DLO is on the floor, the Mavericks turn the ball over way less. And it’s obviously a direct correlation because you have a primary ball handler on the court. Cooper Flag is not that guy. PJ Washington is not that guy. Anthony Davis is not that guy. You have to start a primary point guard and you just have to live with D’Angelo Russell taking a couple of bad shots here and there. So this is the lineup that I would start at least for the next few games. D’Angelo Russell, Max Christie, Cooper Flag, AD, and Derek Lively if he’s healthy. Who knows if Lively is even going to play on Wednesday against the Indiana Pacers. He did miss uh Monday’s game with a knee contusion. So, we’ll keep you up to date on that as well. But this is the lineup I would roll with for the time being. And that’s not to say it can’t change. And yeah, PJ Washington is not in this lineup. And that’s unfortunate. I love PJ Washington. He might be my favorite player on this Mavericks team outside of Kyrie Irving, if we’re being quite honest with you. I love what he brings to the table, but him coming off the bench might be the best thing for this team right now. And look, are we’re gonna talk about the potential of bringing Cooper Flag off the bench here in just a second. I just don’t see that happening here in the immediate future. So, I do think that PJ coming off the bench at this current moment is the best thing for the Dallas Mavericks. We’ll talk about Cooper Flack coming off the bench hit and his potential injury here in just a moment. But I do need to tell you about our sponsor, which of course is Price Pick. Shout out to Prize Fix for sponsoring this episode of Mavericks Today. The hard-hitting football action is even better with Prize Pix. The weather might be changing, but the feeling of being right never gets old. So keep the season rolling on Prize Pix by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. Price is the best place to play in over 45 states, including California, Georgia, and Texas. 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To be honest, I think I if it was me running the Dallas Mavericks and I was the head coach of this team, I would bring Cooper Flag off the bench for the time being, but we all know that’s not happening. You’re just not going to bench your number one pick after four games and have him come off the bench in a six-man rotation type role. It’s simply just not a realistic proposition. If this was NBA 2K and the Mavericks were playing this way, 100% I would put him on the bench. But he’s going to take his lumps. He’s going to have his struggles. And you’re just not going to bench Cooper Flag after four games of his NBA career. And speaking of Cooper Flag, he did injure his shoulder in this loss against Oklahoma City. On the first play of the game, you could tell he was really favoring his shoulder. He was holding it, walking up and down the court for the first few possessions. And then when he came out in his normal rotation after about 6 minutes, he had a heavy heavy wrap on his shoulder. He was wearing that all throughout the game when he was on the bench. Now, he still did end up playing 31 minutes in this game, so I don’t think it bothered him too too much, but Flag was clearly hurt by this injury and he was struggling in this game. He did not have a good game for this Dallas Mavericks team at all. He just ended up with two points and two boards in 31 minutes. And yeah, the injury certainly had an effect on his game. And I don’t know if it’s going to be something that’s super long-term. Flag certainly doesn’t think it’s going to be a super long-term injury. And this is what he had to say on it. Shout out to Mike Curtis for this quote, by the way. He said, “We’re going to probably get some scans or whatever, make sure everything’s all clean. I feel like it’s just a little sore. Just wanted to keep an eye on it, ice it, do some rehab, and we should be good to go for tomorrow night’s game against Indiana.” So, Flag feels thinks he’s going to be fine. And that, you know, put some confidence in me that I think he’s going to be fine as well through 31 minutes. Like I said, just just a horrible performance on the court from Flag. Two points, two boards, one of nine from the field, 0 of three from three, and a minus 20. Now, he didn’t turn the ball over, which is a positive sign. But you’re just going to have these kind of games with an 18-year-old man. Like, there will be times where he just doesn’t impact the game in a positive way, and that’s kind of what we got from Flag last night. Now, I can’t blame Flag. Like, I refuse to put the blame on Cooper Flag for his lackluster performances here in the first four games of the year. like he’s simply not being put in a position to succeed right now. Putting him at point guard is just not a way to get the best out of Cooper flag immediately. Is it the best thing for him in the long run? Maybe it is. Is it the best thing for this Mavericks team right now who is in win now mode? Probably not. So maybe Flag at the end of the season will look like a different player and you’ll be able to see his development trajectory, but at the moment outside of the Toronto game looks pretty ugly for Cooper Flag, man. It really, really does. Uh, bench one down in the comments for me. If you had to bench one, who would it be? PJ Washington or Cooper Flag, who would you take out of the starting lineup? Type their jersey numbers down below of which one you would put put on the bench in favor of D’Angelo Russell. And also just kind of a little tidbit on Klay Thompson. Brother might be cooked, man. He was absolutely terrible in this game. And we’ve kind of seen this from Klay in the first couple of years that he’s been in Dallas. He started out very slow last season as well. Started out very slow this season. Klay just had eight points and four boards. Two of six from three and three of 11 shooting in 22 minutes. Klay’s going to play about 22 to 24 minutes a night. You need him to make three threes. You need him to be more efficient from the field. He’s not doing anything defensively anymore. So, the reason he is out there is to shoot the basketball. He’s got to be able to start making some shots, man. Otherwise, there’s no reason for him to be in that starting lineup. Like, that starting lineup I showed you earlier didn’t feature Klay Thompson either because he has not been effective for this team. But, I think bringing Klay off the bench might just destroy his confidence altogether. So Jason Kidd has a lot to deal with when he’s trying to consider the best rotations and the best starting lineup for this team. My prevailing thought from last night and I tweeted out tweeted this out. You can go follow me on Twitter at Jeff_Coup 27. I don’t think Anthony Davis is that fun of a basketball player to watch. Like yeah he had his statline looked really good 26 and 11, three assists, whatever it was and the Mavs just in general aren’t a fun basketball team to watch. The offense does not flow well. They don’t play great defense, although they played decently against OKC. Uh they m the Thunder missed a ton of wideopen shots. Like I don’t think the Mavericks did anything crazy to prevent the Thunder from scoring. The Thunder just missed open shots. And to be fair, the Mavericks missed a bunch of open shots as well in this game. But at the end of the day, I don’t love the style of basketball play basketball this team is playing right now. They wanted to play a really free flowing offense with a bunch of ball movement, bunch of cutting, a bunch of screens. Really haven’t seen that yet. I hope this changes. I hope this team is able to find a flow on offense. Right now, though, it is ugly, ugly basketball to watch. That will do it for today’s show, guys. Appreciate you for tuning in. As usual, one more reminder, we will be live on the channel tomorrow, 7:20 p.m. Central time. Hopefully, my voice can return for that game. youtube.com/mapsv. We’ll see you guys soon here on the channel. Let’s go maps. [Music]

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Cooper Flagg on his shoulder:
“We’re going to probably get some scans or whatever. Make sure everything’s all clean. I feel like it’s just a little sore. Just wanted to keep an eye on it. Ice it. Do some rehab & we should be good to go.”

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– BENCH ONE! PJ Washington (Type ‘25’) or Cooper Flagg (Type ’32’)

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Mavs Starting lineup for the 2025-26 NBA season when healthy:
Kyrie Irving
Cooper Flagg
PJ Washington
Anthony Davis
Dereck Lively II
Klay Thompson (6th man)

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