Even with Cooper Flagg, Mavericks' 'weird' roster could have problems

Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Mo Dakhil to discuss the outlook for Dallas this season – and while hope is high for the number one overall pick, there’s a big void at one particular position. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

Now you get this weird roster that’s in the vision of Nico Harrison with their lineups here, they have two big potentials: Lively, or Gafford plus AD.

They can play with one big.

They have a bunch of wings and forwards, Cooper Flagg, Klay Thompson, Max Christie, Kayla Martin, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, like there’s a lot of options.

At the wing and forward spots and then at guard, like you don’t have Kyrie, but you bring in D’Lo, Brandon Williams closed last year fairly well.

Jayden Hardy, Dante Exum deeper off the bench as well, and Naji Marshall as well can run a little bit of a point for you too.

This team, though, I’m not totally certain what to make of them.

Um, I see the vision, I get what Nico sees, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel like this has a chance of getting even uglier this coming season.

Yeah, I don’t necessarily understand who’s gonna be distributing the ball.

I know they got D’Lo out there, but like, I don’t know, there’s no real true playmaker where I’m like, oh wow, this is a great creator.

They’re going to use Cooper Flagg a lot, I think, to try to create and be more on ball, and I’m scared by that.

He looks more like I’m ready to attack on the second side than, you know, being a guy that can initiate the offense.

I don’t think it’s early, but I don’t think his handles are tight enough right now where he’s gonna, when he’s going in night in and night out and trying to be, we, we saw how efficient he was in summer league.

Like he just struggled scoring in isolation.

It just was for him, and that’s not a knockout.

He’s an excellent prospect, but every rookie is gonna have flaws, and you can’t put too much on his plate and expect winning results as a rookie.

But winning results as a rookie.

But like you’re expecting that and expecting him to be a playmaker for the team is, kind of where I’m concerned with the with what they’re going with going forward.

Like it’s a little bit of a weird line.

Obviously, it gets better once they have Kyrie back and healthy, and whether that’s, you know, whether that’s at some point this year or at all this season, right?

Like it, but I understand the future viewpoint of it, but for this season, I just look at it going like, man, it’s tough, and then I just, I can’t get excited if you bring in D’Angelo Russell.

Out as your starter, like I, I, I know he’s he’s a gap situation and all that stuff, but it’s like I can’t get juiced up for that stuff, you know, I like what Brandon Williams did.

I like the wings.

I thought Max Christie was really good for them after the trade.

Naji Marshall was really good down the stretch and showed some flashes at PJ Washington, I think he definitely earned his extension, but I just look at this team and I’m just like, I don’t really know what you guys are.

Yeah.

I mean, to me, if I put them in a tier, it’d be wanderers.

Um, I think they are very, very, very much wandering right now, figuring out who they are.

Uh, Nico Harrison may, may think they’ll be contenders.

I think that’s a bit insane.

Um, to believe that with this team, there’s just too many ifs if Kyrie Irving returns, if Kyrie Irving gets back to himself during the season, if Anthony Davis stays healthy, if Cooper Flagg is like a high impact winning player as a rookie, if Lively stays healthy, I mean, if Klay Thompson doesn’t continue to regress at his in the mid-30s at this point, like there’s so many ifs, ifs, ifs up and down the board with this Dallas Mavericks roster.

Even with Cooper Flagg, Mavericks’ ‘weird’ roster could have problems

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