It’s Time…

It’s Time…

Something needs to change before the Dallas Mavericks severely ruined Cooper Flag’s development. The Dallas Mavericks are currently two and six in their first eight games of the season, and nothing’s really looked good. We tried Cooper Flag at point guard for a few games, and that may have been too much to ask of the 18-year-old rookie. So, we allowed D’Angelo Russell into the lineup in last night’s game against the Pelicans to allow Cooper Flag to just play more like himself. And although we did do what by the numbers suggests the right thing to do, we still got a loss. It’s starting to look like nothing can go right for the Dallas Mavericks team, severely hurting Cooper Flags chances at Rookie of the Year or even having something of a successful rookie year, period. So, in this video, we’re going to take a look at what’s been going on with the Dallas Mavericks, how will this affect Cooper Flag, as well as go over article that details exactly what’s going on. But, how’s it going everybody? My name is Marcel Martin. This is Mavericks Digest, bringing you the latest news on everything Mavericks related. And before we get started with today’s video, we’re currently sitting at 22,400 subscribers. I truly do think we can get to 25K before the end of this season. So if you want to be up to date on everything that the Dallas Mavericks do, especially when we finally get a win, cuz I know you want to be here when we finally get our third win. So if you don’t want to miss out, make sure you subscribe. But the Dallas Mavericks have been off to a horrible start. It was only two short seasons ago where we made the finals and then last year we also had a pretty rough start, a little bit better than what we’re currently having. But we had the right personnel. We were dealing with injuries and sickness. Then the trade deadline came, we made the trade and then we dealt with more injuries and losses and we got the number one pick and even with the number one pick, it didn’t really seem and the number one pick coupled with an offseason for guys to recover and get healthy didn’t really seem to help. The Dallas Mavericks are two and six in their first eight games. And although I know it’s only eight games, we’ve lost to teams that we really shouldn’t have lost to. We lost to the Wizards. We lost to the Pelicans just now. We see the Grizzlies tomorrow. And then on Saturday, we see the Wizards again where if the Dallas Mavericks aren’t trying to win games and the Dallas Mavericks don’t try to fix things, we could quickly be 2-8 by the end of the weekend. The Dallas Mavericks are in a horrible start. And if we take a look right here, the Dallas Mavericks are now in last place in the West. We’re actually tied for last place, but we lost to the team that we’re tied to. So yes, we are in dead last. But honestly, one of the main key things that the Dallas Mavericks can do to truly fix what is going on is to fire Nico Harrison. But unfortunately, that would be the easy thing to do. That would be too easy to fire Nico. Nico Harrison is by all intents and purposes responsible for the makeup of this roster. And by no means do I think the players are bad. It’s just not the right roster construction. These guys just don’t seem to be a or they’re not capable of winning games together. And it’s up to the coaching staff to make it work, but it hasn’t happened yet. And maybe we are maybe our expectations are too high. Maybe we think too highly of this team. Over the summer, we were hyping ourselves up. We got Cooper Flag. We got Anthony Davis. Kyrie Irving will return, but we got a deep team. PJ has been great for us along with Max Christie. What could go wrong? Well, a lot’s been going wrong. Our offense is the worst in the NBA despite having a pretty good defense. It really doesn’t matter. defense can’t win championships alone. You need a decent team, but not when you have the worst offense. And time and time again, the Dallas Mavericks continue to show that they don’t really have an identity. There’s nothing there. And unfortunately, at the center of all of this is Cooper Flag, the 18-year-old rookie who’s supposed to be starting his freshman year of college, but is in the NBA. Maybe given too much to handle. Maybe he’s over his head. And I don’t want to say he’s not ready for it. I don’t want to say that he doesn’t belong in the NBA. But unfortunately, the Dallas Mavericks have not done him any favors on what to do in the NBA. We haven’t given him any direction. It’s been a game after game of just figure it out. Go out there and see what sticks. And unfortunately, nothing seems to stick. We’re two and four, about to be two and five, probably two and six. Things will continue to get worse. I’m sorry. We’re two and six right now. I’m I’m all over the place. We’re two and six right now. Soon to be 2 and nine and two and 10. Things poss could possibly get worse, even if it doesn’t feel like it. And if we just take a look at a few other things we have right here after last night’s game, I guess last night’s loss to the Pelicans, Cooper flag on how the locker room is handling the Mavericks two to6 start. He said, “For me, it’s the most I’ve lost since I think ever. I wouldn’t say anyone is happy. Guys are obviously trying to stay level-headed and know that we got a lot more games to go and still really early. But I’m speaking personally. I know it’s not fun to just keep losing and losing games. So, I’d like to make a change and hopefully start making steps in the right direction.” Of course, a lot of the times we get a lot of PR responses from the players and coaches whenever a loss or a win happens. So, you don’t really get the raw and honest truth, but this feels like the raw and honest truth from Cooper Flag, a rookie who is not used to losing, who is not used to being in the situation. He he said it just flat out, we are not happy. And I’m glad that the players feel that way. I don’t think the players are just not caring. I think they care a lot. They’re getting paid millions of dollars to go out there and of course they want to win. They’re competitors. They’ve been playing at this level or being this competitive their entire lives. So, of course, they’re not happy. Cooper Flag, your rookie, is not happy. What are we doing to make him happy? Obviously, we need to win games. We need to put him in positions to win. At the end of the game against the Pelicans, we were giving Cooper Flag the ball. That’s how you develop Cooper Flag. He was taking every shot. He was attacking the basket, doing everything. If we’re going to develop Cooper Flag, then that’s how you do it. You give him every opportunity to fail until he learns how to succeed. But we haven’t given him any opportunities to fail and he’s still failing. The Dallas Mavericks have got to figure out what they’re doing with Cooper Flag before it’s too late. And obviously I’m not talking about him wanting to leave. That’s never going to happen. At least not anytime soon. Knock on wood. But things could get ugly very, very fast. But if we take a look right here, Max Christie also weighed in on to last night’s game and what it does for Cooper Flag, saying it’s a learning lesson for him for sure to be able to feel that heartbreak. if you if you will at the end where you missed that game-tying shot. He was in that situation which was good and he handled it with poise and he handled it with perfection. He kept us in the game and that’s what I’m talking about. That is something we need to see more of. And if we lose these games, allow it to be lost because we allowed Cooper Flag to do it himself. That we allowed Cooper Flag to get the ball and figure it out. That’s the only way that we will be able to develop Cooper Flag while we’re waiting for Kyrie Irving to come back. Well, now we’re waiting for AD to come back. While we’re waiting for guys to get healthy, we may as well just allow Cooper Flag to spread his wings, stretch the legs, go out there, you get the ball, you do what you want. You want D’Angelo Russell in the lineup so you have a point guard? Sure. It didn’t look like it worked, but if that’s what you want, then that’s what we’re going to give you. It’s the end of the game. We’re down by two. We got a few minutes left. You’re getting the ball. You’re going to figure it out. That’s how you develop Cooper flag. And that’s what we did last night. And hopefully we continue to do that. But I fully believe and understand we’re not going to win games. It’s just not going to happen for us. The Dallas Mavericks may be lucky to win 25 games at most this season. And I’m not being dramatic. I truly do believe that. And if that’s the case, so be it. Allow Cooper Flag to develop while we’re losing these games. Allow him to get up as many shots as possible. Allow him to try as many things as he wants to try. Let Cooper Flag develop if this year doesn’t seem to matter. But like I said, there is an article that came out just the other day by No Weber highlighting how the Mavericks are already robbing Cooper Flag of the rookie season he deserves. The article as follows, saying that Dallas is making Cooper Flags rookie year harder than it needs to be. Flag is only 18 years old and he’d likely be best utilized off the ball while allowing the veterans on the roster to com to complement his game. Struggles are normal for teenagers in the NBA, especially for someone who is the youngest player in the NBA like Flag. And the plan that he is being utilized in by Jason Kidd may have come to fruition a little bit prematurely. And the one thing that I really did enjoy about Cooper Flag was just how he was just handling the ball at the end of the game last night. How he was allowed to just go out there and do whatever. Cooper Flag was the fastest rookie since LeBron James to get 100 points. He’s putting up good numbers. Even he may have the worst box plus minus, but overall his averages aren’t really that bad. We just don’t have him in the right position. And unfortunately, it’s not helping him whatsoever. And we got to take a handle of it. We got to fix that now before things get worse. But the article does continue by saying, “Fans are quick to point out that kid was a key figure in helping Giannis Antompo become more skilled with the ball in his hands by forcing him to play some point forward. But this didn’t come in his rookie season. And Dumbo had already played two seasons in in the NBA before kid made him a lead ball handler in Milwaukee. It’s undeniable that this helped him become the player that he is today. But Flag isn’t the same player as a Tumbo and the offensive systems are completely different. Flag is drawing extremely tough defensive assignments every single night due to the Maverick’s insistence on making him play point guard. And this is only making things harder on him as he tries to get into a rhythm. And that’s one of the things I definitely noticed in these games where we allowed Cooper Flag to play point forward. the defense is smothering him where he has to get rid of the ball and just kind of space the floor out because he’s getting too much attention. He can’t do anything. Playing point forward is more than just bringing the ball down and then passing the ball. That that’s not developing him in anything if he’s just crossing half court and passing. That’s not what a point guard does. A point guard does more than that. And if he’s not capable of doing it or if we don’t have the right tools for him to do that, abandon it. Exactly what Noah said in the No Weber said in in his article. allow him to play off ball. We saw a few times of him catching it off the pick and roll, attacking the basket. We saw a few times where we gave it to him at the top of the key and he just ran downhill. Of course, his transition offense is amazing. So, why don’t we play more to his strengths and then we can slowly peel back the layers and develop him more, but doing it in the first eight games is kind of excessive. It’s a little bit too much if you ask me. And the article does continue by saying Flag has been guarded by players like Stefon Castle, Officer Thompson, Lou Dor, Case Walls, and Almond Thompson over his first seven games in the NBA. And this isn’t a cakewalk of a start by any means. He’s being forced to go against some of the best point of attack defenders in the NBA since the Mavs use him at point guard. And playing him alongside a different guard such as Brandon Williams or Russell would definitely help him. Williams or Russell may not have the on ball pop to pull these dominant defenders away from guarding Flag, but they could at least create advantages with the ball in their hands and give the offense some flow. Both Williams and Russell can be trusted to make the right reads, and Flag’s offball cutting is one area that would benefit from Kid using a point guard with him more often. Now, unfortunately, we did play D’Angelo Russell as a starter last night and we lost. So, maybe it isn’t Dan Russell. Maybe it is Brandon Williams who did look a little bit better than DLO last night. Who knows? But we need to do better. Again, by we, I mean, the Dallas Mavericks, the organization, the front office, and the coaches need to do right by Cooper Flag. We are all aware that we’re losing. We all aware that this team is a lot worse than what we think it is. We may as well be the 31st worst team in the NBA, and there’s only 30 teams. But we got to do right by Cooper Flag. If he’s the future, then we got to protect the future today. Whether you blow up the team, you fire Nico, or you just fix what you have now, the Dallas Mavericks have to figure it out. And of course, we may continue to lose games, but if we’re going to lose these games, allow Cooper to develop within these losses. There’s no point in him losing a game and he has two points or we lost a game and he sat in a corner the whole game. He’s not learning or developing that way. He’s got to be more involved and he has to be given more to do. Maybe not the point forward, but at least involve him more on the offensive end as a weapon so he can learn from that. Let me know what you think in the comment section down below. Do you think so far this has been good development for Cooper Flag or do you think we’ve been doing him a disservice and that we could harm him for the future? Let me know what you think in the comment section down below. We’d have a conversation about it. But that’s all I got for you guys today. Thank you for watching the video. Make sure to check out our Twitter and Discord links in the description below. And as always, y’all take care. Drink water. Peace.

Marcel Martin breaks down why the lack of proper development for Cooper Flagg could spell trouble for both the young star and the Dallas Mavericks’ long-term future. He explains how inconsistent usage, unclear role definition, and coaching hesitation can derail a rookie’s confidence and growth. Marcel also discusses what the Mavs must change immediately to ensure Flagg evolves into the franchise cornerstone they envisioned.

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