Would the Mavs REGRET Not Giving Anthony Davis & Kyrie Irving a Chance? | Dallas Mavericks Podcast

Would the Mavs REGRET Not Giving Anthony Davis & Kyrie Irving a Chance? | Dallas Mavericks Podcast

Today’s show, just give Kyrie and AD a chance. Let’s see what they can do is something I’ve heard from a lot of Mavericks fans. I just don’t think there’s enough reason to do it. Today’s locked on Mavs. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on Mold. I think that’s a good question. Morning. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal Mavericks podcast. Part of the locked on network. Still can’t leave. Your team every day. I’m going to get a city like back and welcome. You were locked on to the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead. Medium member covering the Maver 10 years. Thanks for being in everyday or making locked on Mats your first listen to Making Lock on Podcast Network. The number one sports podcast network out there. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com. Place your NFL live bets all season long. Joining me as always, my co-host, media member of the Master for 10 years. right alongside me, the Chance Chump, the One More Than King. What you got for me, Isaac Harris? Don’t be calling me a chump. Um, I had a dilemma yesterday and I need I need a ruling from you. Went through Starbucks and the drive-thru. Yeah. Do you leave tip in a drive-thru? No. But don’t you feel like forced to, though? Do they have a jar thing? No. I don’t know. It’s like, hey, they like, you know, you scan turn the iPad around your car and it’s like, hey, they always get you, you know, hey, there’s there’s a question. You just got to answer a question real quick. Yeah, there’s a question. The question is, do you want to give me money or not? I hit 10% or 15% every single time. But I’m like, every time I drive away, I’m like, why did I just do that? Yeah. Well, I don’t I mean, to support them, like, for sure, but it’s like I don’t The company should be supporting them. That’s the That’s the thing. Tip in a drive-thru. I’m I I don’t know. I just don’t I don’t I’ve struggled with this for 48 hours. There’s There are certain industries we that that should be tipped and other ones that you’re like, well, I don’t know about that one. Today, we’re going to talk about how to build around Cooper Flag. We got a couple of big questions that we want to see if we can answer about what kind of players his co-star, what kind of point guards he need to play with, what kind of, you know, when will his prime be? All kinds of questions like that. But I want to start here, Isaac, because I I was scouring around as I was thinking about today’s show, looking through our Discord, looking through our text line, looking through Reddit, looking through Twitter comments, all kinds of different things. Plugs, let’s go. All kinds of different things. That’s correct. And uh the one thing that I’m seeing a lot of right now is the counter to tank or the counter to hey, we should trade AD is just let’s just Wait, there’s fans that don’t think we should tank. There’s a lot of them. There’s a lot of them. And they all hate each kid. They all hate your guts right now. Just kidding. They all just say, “Well, let’s just give AD and Kyrie a chance.” And even slightly kind of had that sentiment in the the show we did on Monday with the with all of us. I think he still does. Yeah, he still does kind of think that, hey, let’s just give it a chance. Especially if the the trades that they’re going to that they’re going to do look as bad as the ones that we’ve been seeing floated out there. I saw the one the Bobby Marks one today that was like Zack Lavine and two like pretty bad first round picks for Anthony Davis. I saw the one where it’s like Draymond and something else for Brandon Davis. You’re like, “All right, if that’s what we’re going to do, then what’s the point? Just give him a chance.” And I start to look at that. And my big question back to any of those people that are like, “Well, why don’t we just give him a chance?” Is when? When is that going to happen? We’ve already seen Anthony Davis go through three pretty major injuries since he’s been here with with the Mavericks. The adductor injury that kept him out at the beginning, the retina surgery he had to get in the offseason, and now the calf strain that kept him out this season. So many games. Kyrie is coming back from his ACL and they the last time they were healthy February 8th, 2025. It has almost been a full calendar year. Well, we’re like we’re like nine months 10 months since those guys have both been healthy at the same time. Was that the Houston half? That was the Houston half. Correct. Very good. Very good class. Paying attention. Before that, AD played in 42 of 45 games. Kyrie played in 41 of 52 games last year. And so, but I I just don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon. And it’s one of the reasons why the Nico Vision was just never going to work is because you bet on these two injured stars and their timelines of when they’re healthy are just never really going to match up. And if they do, could be special. I think they could be really good together. But I don’t think it’s going to happen. And if it does happen, will it happen long enough? Yeah. I mean, you’re just holding out hope that, you know, if you’re um say, “Hey, why don’t we give it a chance?” She’s holding out hope that they are going to overlap, the healthy timelines of them will overlap and you get to see it for a consistent amount of time. Um, yeah, I I I just I I go back to the same question of like what what do you think the ceiling is? And for me th this is what it all boils bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo boils down to for me right now is if you’re in the camp that you think that the ceiling of this team is a deep playoff run with both of those guys even risking like if they’re not fully healthy and but getting having both of those guys with the roster, you stay Pat, you go for it. If you think the ceiling is a deep playoff run, then I get it. Go like give them a chance. Like if if you are in that camp and you think that they they have then argue that from the rooftops like sit there and say like I will go to bat because they have all the talent they have all the stuff they can go they can beat somebody they can get to the conference finals to go against OKC. But if you’re not in that camp and you’re in the camp of hey let’s just let’s just give it a chance and just see where it see where it rides out. you know, if we if we land ninth or tth and we lose in a plan, we at least got to see it or, you know, we we barely missed the plan, we at least got to see a few of the guys. If you’re in that camp, that’s the camp I I like struggle with a lot. And some of you guys are always already yelling in the comments about us talking about this before you even watched it. They haven’t even hit play yet. They’re listen, I even told Nick, I’m like, I got it was Nick’s idea to do this question. All right. So, because I’m like my my stance is still the same and so many people get mad, but it’s like you’re and it’s more of you’re already down the path. Like, you’re already down the path of 80s only played in 10 games. Derek Lively is out for the rest of the year. Kyrie’s not back yet. This is your one pick in the next five years you could troll. Like, you’re so far down that path already that I just don’t Yeah, I’ll take that I’ll take that even further. like Kyrieas is out and and he may come back January, February, may even come back in March and that may not be long enough for him to come back and for the Mavericks to be good enough. I’ll go far Der Lively is out. That’s a massive blow. Gaffford has been in and out of the lineup. We don’t know when he’s going to be fully healthy with that ankle. That’s been a big thing for him. Uh Klay Thompson has come come on strong a little bit here, but has been pushed to the bench, which I think is is not a positive for for the Mavericks overall. Um, your guards are Ryan Demhard and Brandon Williams who are doing a pretty good pretty decent job here and there and they show some promise. But I don’t know in a playoff setting if either of those guys are holding up or you know down the stretch in playoff games how they’re able to hold up. Caleb Martin is unplayable. Jaden Hardy is not is not playable unless you’re down by 20 or up by 20 and that is an all-star player. D’Angelo Russell also is out of Jason Kidd’s rotation. So, it’s like all these things that we were hoping would be good at the beginning of the season have just been rendered down to it’s not working. Like this this isn’t this isn’t working. And even if you get Anthony Davis and Kyrie at the same time, maybe it starts making some of those pieces fit in fit in place. But I don’t know. The Mavs right now, their offense is still 30th in the NBA. When Anthony Davis plays, it would be the 23rd offense in the NBA. But their defense also falls from, you know, top 10 right now. when Anthony Davis on the court, their defense is 117.1. That would be 18th in the NBA. It’s like that’s not elite enough. And I don’t know if you’re getting back to the elite defense, if AD and Lively both aren’t available and Lively is not going to be available the rest of the year. Yeah. And I want to say like I get the sentiment of like wanting to see it happen. Like this is the guy you traded Luca Donich for and Anthony Davis. Like and you see him playing some You said you did it. I didn’t do Nico Harrison did. I just want to be very clear that I I had no part of this. And as much as we laugh about it, that Houston half was fun. All right. Those two quarters, I’m not going back to the Houston half ago. That’s two mentions of the Houston half so far tonight. That’s the only example we have of Kyrie and AD together. All right. And and Houston wasn’t even that good last year. Uh and we didn’t have Cooper. And so like and I get it. I think there’s a lot of fans out there that’s like watching this and they’re like, “Man, AD’s playing the five right now. We have this, you know, new franchise guy and Cooper Flag. Kyrie hasn’t even played yet. We love Kyrie.” I get all of that. And like that’s really exciting. Like, it really is. And if you think that that combination can take you really far in a league if some things bounce right, then yeah, that’s awesome. Like, and that’s what makes sports and like talking about sports so much fun. I’m obviously not in that camp. I don’t think that that’s their their ceiling uh this year and I I don’t trust the the injury inconsistency and all that matching up and everything aligning perfectly, the planets aligning. Um I just don’t I don’t think that’s their ceiling now. Now that Lively’s out for the year, they’re just down this path already. Um and I don’t think the cost of trying to reverse on that path and trying to go the other direction. I don’t think the cost of that is worth it. Um, but that’s just my opinion. Like, so I get I I want to say like I get the excitement of it of wanting to see Kyrie and AD together. These are two of the biggest names in basketball, you know, for a decade now, like these two, you know, Olympian guys. So, it’s a f it’s a fun thing. And who knows if we’ll ever see it, right? I mean, I it will be pretty wild if they do trade Anthony Davis in the next coming weeks or months. And the only time we got to see AD and Kyrie together were two halves or two quarters. Thank you for not saying the Houston half again. And we’re I mean also we’re just reading the the tea leaves on it is that I don’t think the Mavs want to be in cap hell giving Anthony Davis this extension when Cooper Flag is going to be getting into his prime in a couple years. That’s I think that’s one of the the main reasons you’re looking at it like all right they’re not good enough now to justify it and they’re not like that Anthony Davis is not going to be good enough then or available. Rich Paul wants his client to get paid right like this isn’t as simple as you don’t have to pay him right now. that it’s not that’s not how the NBA works, especially with a guy like Rich Paul. It’s like, “No, my client is going to get paid.” Like, so then this is so then this is what happens. You say, “All right, we’re not not going to pay you right now.” All right. Well, then we’ll we’ll hold out and then we’ll tank our value even more to where you have to like attach stuff potentially to us to get to get rid of us to somewhere else who where someone will pay us. Yeah. It’s like all of a sudden, oh well, AD’s got something that’s sore right now. 80s medical staff comes and says, “Oh, lower back tightness or the calf is reagravated.” There’s just a lot of different ways that agents get involved with that. And if Dallas isn’t willing to give him an extension over the next 12 months, some sometime then it’s going to whether you hold on to him or not, it it’s going to get rocky really fast. Next thing you know, Max Kellerman is here doing a podcast in the Mavs practice facility with Rich Paul. I you just don’t know what could happen next. Coming up, let’s talk about how to build around Cooper flag. What are things we’ve learned already? We’re going to share them coming up next. Today’s episode of Lock Mabs brought to you by Zach Do. Guys, it’s 2025, almost 2026. Almost there. Those days of waiting for something to become a full-blown emergency before you see a doctor, they’re over. I see the demographics of this show. Some of us getting there, you just got to go to the doctor. You can’t just like walk it off anymore for 6 months and pretend like, “Ah, no, that doesn’t hurt. My ankle’s not clicking. I don’t have to worry about that. shoulder stiffness. I’m just sleeping wrong. All that. You got to take your health seriously and Zach Do can help you do that and help make it easier than ever before. Staying healthy is more than just hitting the gym or eating right. It’s actually about getting things checked out when something feels off. 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Appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show. Like Isaac said, I plugged our Discord earlier. The two ways you can get access to our Discord and hang out with a bunch of Mavs fans talking about Mabs all day is you can subscribe to the text line, the link in the description. You can text Discord to 2146438637. You can also join the Everdayers Club where you get ad free episodes of this show on audio. You also get access to Discord, bunch of other stuff, merch store for Locked On podcast network stuff, all kinds of things like that. And so, go check that out. And there’s links in the description for that, too. The uh the Everyday Club, you can go to locked on Mavericks. All right, Isaac, let’s talk about building around Cougar Flag. Uh this is the one that you brought up today. I want to make sure that everyone knows you brought up this list. This is I brought up the last This is fun. This is a fun one. Um, what have we learned about Cooper Flag so far? Let’s start with this. I’m I’m interested. When do you think Cooper Flag’s prime will be? Like when are we primed to like All right, now we’re talking about a player that we’re building like a championship team around. I mean, probably another two or three years at least, honestly. Like he’s already got the clutch gene. He is playing defense really well. And those are usually two things that take a while. were like, “All right, let’s see how he can let’s see how this player can eventually, you know, get their own shot. Let’s see how this player eventually defends against NBA defenses.” And those are two things that Cooper Flag already does really well. Like I I moved up my timeline. That’s one of the things I think I’ve learned this year is I I think I moved up my timeline with Cooper Flag maybe like two years. I’m like, “All right, this is an 18-year-old. What’s he going to look like in the NBA? May take a while. First year might be a little rough, but man, I mean, yeah, like 21 years old. Hopefully, he’s been to the playoffs or at least a playin or something like that by then.” And like, well, let’s start building. That’s that’s why you take the chance to see it to get that playin spot. We should just and honestly moving up that timeline because I’m in the same camp as you is like I think he’s been better this year than even what I imagined and I had a pretty high bar. Um that makes me emphasize this upcoming draft even more because it’s kind of like Luca stuff. I mean, we always go I mean, I always go back to it, but it’s like after Luca’s rookie season, he was so dang good that like you’re not like you’re you’re like you’re instantly in win now mode because he’s so good. And they had that one year to possibly get a young piece to go next to him, but they had to give up that pick to go get Luca the year before. So, Cam Reddish would have been so good next to him. Young T-Mac Cam Reddish. Um yeah, and then they, you know, couldn’t get Lonzo Trier either. So, it was a tough move for him. Toxic. Um, but when you look at Cooper, I mean, I think for me the thing that I wouldn’t say it’s it’s tough to say like learned because that means it’s like something new, but it’s something uh new based off how the season started is you need a good point guard next to him. Like, yeah. And I mean, I think when you look at moving forward and building around Cooper flag that you got to have that, you know, to force Cooper to be the full-time point guard, um I don’t think it’s good for his game. Like we were never in that camp, we were voicing that frustration from the very beginning. Uh even when it looked rocky, kept on like it just it didn’t make sense. and he needs a guy whether and right now I know a lot of people it’s like it’s Ryan Nimhard whether it’s Nimhard whether it’s Kyrie whether it’s a future guard in this upcoming draft like a Darren Peterson or Michael Brown I think he needs a a a dynamic point guard out there at the at the minimum somebody that can handle the ball run the offense like a Ryan Nhard at the ceiling a Darren Peterson and an exciting uh type of scoring guard a Kyrie Irving right now So, um, I that’s for me something I’ve learned about it. Yeah, he’s not he’s not the, you know, SGA could be a guy where he he doesn’t really need a point guard on his team. He’s not necessarily the point guard, but he can operate well enough that you’re like, “All right, well, that offense can work if he is dictating every everything that’s happening.” Obviously, Luca is another one where you look at it. LeBron was one where like you could play you could have Mo Williams next to him and you could still make the you know the NBA finals or Kyrie who’s a point guard but plays off ball really well that that can work and LeBron’s technically your point guard. Cooper Flag is not that like that is not the type of player that he is and so he does need somebody next to him to to set some of that stuff up. Cooper Flag is going to be elite as the the second guy to get the ball basically what what Tatum has been. I think Jaylen Brown has done this a lot and that that is something that I wrote down too. If the point guard is not an elite point of attack defender, I think they need an elite point of attack defender because I think that’s just where the NBA that’s just where the NBA is right now. You start looking at Oh, OKC obviously they have like four. Uh Houston has Ahmed Thompson. you start looking at some of the other contenders and you go, “All right, well, that’s the thing right now is everybody’s got this elite point of attack defender, except kind of like Denver, but Denver has an elite an elite playmaker, which is a little different, but I think they’re trying to make, you know, Christian Brown that Pton Watson, you know, they’re they’re getting some guys there on the perimeter that can guard those other point guards. And I did a one more thing uh the other day talking about Daniel Gaffford and Indiana’s interest in him. And if they did work out a trade with Indiana, I would love to get Aaron Nesmith back in that deal because I think Nesmith’s one of those dudes that can be a point of attack defender, can hit the outside shot obviously. Um, but yeah, that that that’s good because you don’t Cooper’s a really good defender and a really good ISO defender, but like you you don’t want to ask Cooper to be the point guard defender all game long. The two things he was asked to do at the beginning of the season is be the point guard and the point guard defender. Yeah, I I’ll stay on the defensive route. I put in an ideal perfect world building around uh Cooper flag that you would want an anchor big that allows Cooper to play center field. And I think Cooper is at his best um as that like help kind of like the Anthony Davis role. Like one of the reasons why AD loves playing the four is he doesn’t have to be the big body banging down low and he can kind of play that center field, come over the top, weak side block, stuff like that. And I think Cooper has that. He has I mean just all the incredible timing plays that he has this season to where someone is, you know, going up underneath somebody or they’re flying past somebody and then here comes Cooper over the top of them just swatting the, you know, swatting the ball. So I think and it’s sad that Lively would be this guy. Oh, I know. Uh but whoever it is having a, you know, he had a Malawatch in at Duke that could be that guy. He’s so good at the at the little short alleyoops to those guys too, the touch, the passing, but defensively it just allows him like and you’re like, “Hey, what’s the opposite of that?” If you had a guy like Shenun that is not the like anchor defensive big it not saying it would never like work, but I just Yeah. having a defensive big down low. Like even like thinking about like Shingun and Cooper, they’re so smart. They would make it work. But I would just love to have that center spot be an anchor big that can guard these other bigs. Well, if he if he would play with a Shangon or like a Jokic obviously, could Cooper Flag be good enough in the Aaron Gordon role to make a defense work like that? And I kind of I kind of think they could. I think you and I you and I are talking about what’s optimal for him to play next to. Yes, of course. But I think he could make it work. Which is another thing that we learned about Cooper Flag, which let’s talk about this coming up. Cooper Flag is so versatile that you could almost put any anything around him and he’s going to try to make it work. And we’ll tell you why coming up. Today’s episode of Lock Time Apps brought to you by our friends over at Quo. New year, new me, new systems. This is the time when a lot of us look at the messier parts of running a business and think, man, there’s got to be a better way than this. You know, when you’re like wrapping a present and you’re like, there’s just got to be a easier way than what I’m doing right now. 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So, can you shut it down? Let’s go home. All right, Isaac, let’s keep talking about building around Cooper Flag. We talked about a couple things that we learned about him. One of the things I learned, and I think we knew this already because one of the things we really hyped up about him coming into the season was he’s so versatile. He can do everything on a basketball court. And you mentioned Shangoon, you’re like, well, that wouldn’t be optimal. And then I started thinking, well, he could just be the best version of Aaron Gordon next to a Shangon type and and he could make that work. And that’s one of the things that’s cool about him is that I started to think of, all right, what’s the ideal co-star next to Cooper Flag? And I was like, all right, does it have to be an elite shotmaker? Does it have to be an elite playmaker? Because he’s not an, you know, necessarily like an elite passer playmaker. He is a really good playmaker. Does it have to be like a shot blocker? Like what kind of player does it have to be? And I was like, honestly, you start naming all the stars in the league and you’re like, “All right, Kevin Durant, he can play next to him. All right, Luca, he can play next to him. All right, Joic, he can play next to like he he could just really fit next to anything. You could have really any kind of star as long as you have I think you need another elite playmaker on the court at some point and another elite shotmaker on the court with him and I think that you could create a a you know contending type team. Yeah, I made that Shingun comment and then I was thinking while you’re doing the ad break I’m like well he did win a lot of games with Derek Queen so and that’s kind of like Derek Queen’s compet what kind of competition is he going up against in high school? I know, but it just goes to show it’s like it’s it’s almost like it’s almost harder to do the hey, what would be the worst roster you could put around Cooper? Um because my first players, you know. Yeah. Like my my first bullet point um for this topic was the same thing that you just said. I said Cooper doesn’t require an exact path. What what’s the bad version of around Cooper flag? It’s kind of what we saw at the beginning of this season. Two centers that don’t space the floor. him playing point guard and a a shooting guard that’s not hitting shots. He was like, “What things could we name?” Maybe that was the game that they were playing in the front office. They’re like, “Hey, what do you think’s the worst thing we could do?” That’s the worst version in in you know, I’m I’m we’ll compare just because we had Luca the past seven years. With Luca, he’s so dynamic as this, you know, the magician on the floor. there were these defined roles in all the spots that you needed at the five and you know shooting and then okay well you need that secondary ball handle to creator and they you know the guys that the wings got to be in the corners then these exact spots so you’re trying to like you’re defining the roles more before you get the players and for Cooper now Luca is the better player than Cooper right now I’m not trying to do that it’s just for Cooper he can fit with so many different players so it’s like you So now ideally I think you have I mean I put on there too I was like some type of go-to scorer alongside of him whether and I put whether it’s a point guard or a wing whether it’s a dynamic scoring point guard that you’re pairing with Cooper or you go to Boston route like you know and we have fun joking about the draft and stuff it’s like all right cool you land at one you take Darren Peterson it’s like all right well what if you you know get Debbonta instead well there’s your like new age Tatum and Jaylen Brown like you have these two dynamic wings that uh play both sides of the ball. So, um I think just having help on that side, having another creator no matter the position. And then I just put shooting, shooting, shooting like because the ball’s going to be in that point guard’s hand and Cooper’s hands. And then at that point, you need shooting. So, you got to have I mean, Cooper, you think about the clutch, he’s already got he’s already incredible passer making the right decisions, but you just need spacing out I mean, Klay Thompson, the space that he provides out there, even when he’s not even hitting, you know, good, it it’s just it still just opens up the floor so much. Cooper wants the drive and then he can kick out to the shooters. So, I think that’s that’s a a perfect world. Perfect. Yeah. Perfect world that can happen from now on. Not perfect world in the going back. Well, you even look at Tatum too in Boston. You know, Tatum is a has been like a common comp for him. Yeah. And you know, they’ve won a title. Um, he’s been to the playoffs a ton. It’s like, how what has made that work? Well, they got a second star in there, a second young star. Another one they drafted. When When did they win a title? Wait, did they not? No. Um, black out my black out of my memory for some reason. They they got it, you know, they got the second star that they drafted in uh well, they got had Jaylen and then then Tatum, but it’s like they had the running mate in Brown. They had shooting around them. They had a point guard out there that could run the offense at times. I mean, actually two of them drew in Derek White. They had a versatile big in Horford. Yeah, I think that’s a unique part of that. But, you know, Horford doesn’t really fit that blend. It’s hard to like put Horford in a defined like fiveman type of archetype. Yeah. Um, but you just like look at a situation like that and when you look at other things across the league, um, this sounds like I’m going to go down the tank thing again, but I promise this is not the reason for it, but like you look at these other teams right now like you look at the Magic. I was watching watching the Magic the other night and you know it’s fun team. You know, Fron is obviously got hurt but glad it’s not like season ending. But you look at that Magic team that so many people are excited about right now that they made their all-in move to get Desmond Bane and I’m like, well crap, Paulo was pick one in 2022. Fron was pick eight in 2021. Yeah, Anthony Black was pick six. Jaylen Suggs was pick five. You know, even Dilva was pick 18. These are all in the past four years. And it’s like all chances they took. Yeah. Yeah, and the this is an up and cominging young team that they’re starting to grow grow up, you know, together and they’re one of the, you know, best teams and, you know, we’ve already talked about San Antonio with Vel and Castle and Harper and Sohand and even like Carter Bryant who barely plays. These are picks over the past four or five years that are in the lottery. Kate Cunningham and Detroit with Duran and Thompson and Stewart and Holland and and Ivy. These are all lottery picks over the past four to five years. And these are young teams. You mentioned Houston earlier with Amen and Chengood and these guys. Like these are the team Yeah. these are the teams right now that everybody’s super excited about. And they’re some of the teams that people are looking at saying, “Well, dang, they can cash in some of those assets, too, and go out and get a big star player to go alongside their young stud, too.” So, um, yeah, it’s just, yeah, one of the things I looked up recently was I was I I was curious the pick number for the two best players on a title team because I couldn’t think of a lot of number one picks that had won titles. It’s just it’s just really hard. The last one to do it was LeBron and AD in in in 2020. And then before that, it was LeBron and Kyrie in 2016 where those are the only four number one picks to win. Well, I guess it’s three because LeBron did his twice, but the only three number one picks to to win a title in the last like 10 years or so. And so, you take that point, you go, “Oh, wait, hold on then.” You can find guys, you don’t have to get top five picks in order to find a co-star that’s going to is going to work. SGA was 11. Jaylen Brown or Jaylen Williams was 12. Tatum and Brown were both three. So, there there’s another one. Jokic was 41. Murray was seven. Curry was seven. Draymond Green or was 35. Maybe you count Wiggins that year. He was number one, but Giannis was 15. Chris Middleton was 39th pick in his draft. Kawhai was 15, Kyle Lowry was 24. Then you go back to Durant was number two, Curry was number seven. That’s two years in a row. But then before that is Curry seven, Draymond 35, Andre Godala nine. You know, like you’re hearing all these picks, but it’s just about the Mavs can find a co-star not in a top five. They don’t if they miss out on a top five pick this year, if they can’t tank hard enough or if they don’t decide to tank or whatever, it is possible. It is very hard though. It’s very hard to find that exact right right player. Yeah. Yeah. I even look at, you know, Philly right now and it’s like you’re not even really like caring about Embiid or Paul George. It’s like the the young guys with forget about Ben Simmons and Markeel Folultz and you know Nerland’s even going back to that like they had all those bites that didn’t work. Yeah. But like right now this new wave for him and Maxi Edgecom and you know Jared McCain three guys that they’ve drafted three dynamic young dudes that hopefully they can build around and uh the Hawks you know players even looking at the Cavs and Moy and Garland. Uh but the Hawks have so many different you know draft picks and stuff and um I wonder if it says anything. probably doesn’t. But just hearing you name off those names, those were all like older players like years ago when all the teams I’m talking about right now, the up and cominging teams are all like the younger guys in hired draft picks. I wonder if that means anything. I don’t know. Like time has passed. I don’t know. Back in 2015 when Curry and Draymond were the like they were the young guys coming up like they were the you know the OKC’s team age, right? Like Yeah. Curry’s what 37 right or 35 right now. So he was 25 that year. Something like that. That’s crazy. Yeah. It just means we’re old as hell right now. But but it is you know it is a it is a slim I don’t want to say like hard you’re talking about how very how hard it is um building around when you get a a number one pick and you get one of these guys and you get lucky and you get a chance at getting one of these guys. It’s so vital about how you build around these guys in their first, you know, four to six years. And for Dallas, they’re going to have to do this without owning their pick. So, they’re going to have to get creative. And it’s either, you know, it’s either tra trading off some of the, you know, pieces to get get some more draft picks to help you in the next four to six years. Or it’s hitting home runs on some trades or free agents that you can free up cash space for. It’s going to have to be that route. Yeah. find a pick or hit on, you know, a Jaylen Brunson, a Chris Middleton, a Draymond Green, a Jokic, you know, like hit on those second round picks if you can hit somebody. You have to hit Ryan Nimhard, baby. An absolute home run. And I’m glad they have their second star in Ryan Nhard already. But it’s s it’s such a fun time though because I think the hardest thing is to get the Cooper flag. And right, imagine we we’ve said this a million times, but imagine going through all of this right now and you didn’t have Cooper. And it’s like, would you want to give the Mavs a chance, Kyrie and AD, if they didn’t have Flag? That’s a great, man. I don’t know. Would Would you just have no emotions anymore at all? You just be like dead inside be like, “All right, sure.” I want to say no, just because this draft is so good. Um, I mean, I one, I don’t think they would have nine wins right now without Cooper. So, they would probably be more in the mix with the other worst teams in the league. True. I think I would probably still have the same stance because those top guys in this upcoming draft are so good and except it would be like, “Hey, we got to try to find that next young guy.” Yeah. But I but I would definitely be more willing to hear it out of, hey, what the heck? like you might as well check the QR code links in the description for different ways to follow the show including the everyday club where you can get ad free shows and the discord and our text line where you can get messages and alerts from us include and the discord as well guys thanks so much for listening to locked on Mavs peace out boom

The Dallas Mavericks face crucial decisions as fans debate whether to give Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis one more chance this NBA season. Can the Mavs build effectively around Cooper Flagg and overcome injury setbacks to key players like Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II?

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris break down ongoing roster questions for the Dallas Mavericks, including how Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, D’Angelo Russell, and Jason Kidd fit into the future. They discuss the impact of injuries, recent trade rumors, and what moves Nico Harrison and the Mavericks’ front office might make next. The debate includes other NBA teams like the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, and more, plus takes on how Cooper Flagg’s prime could reshape the Mavs’ strategy.

0:00 Should Mavs Give Kyrie & AD a Chance”
8:15 Building Around Cooper Flagg
21:29 Cooper Flagg’s Versatility & Ideal Co-Star

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