In 2013, English singer-songwriter Tom Odell released his hit song “Another Love.” Oddly enough, the lyrics and meaning match the current feeling Dallas Mavericks fans are feeling now about one former star in Luka Dončić and its current one in Cooper Flagg.

Odell sings about having almost no love left to give to his new partner, after being so deeply in love with his previous one. The most powerful part of the song is the bridge.

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“I wanna sing a song that’ll be just ours, but I sang ‘em all to another heart. And I want to cry, I want to fall in love, but all my tears have been used up, on another love.”

For Mavs fans, most would be singing these lyrics about Flagg, and their other love, Dončić. No matter how unfair, it’s almost impossible to talk about one without the other.

Their performances in their first few seasons in Dallas will always be compared. But Cooper Flagg is not here to be Luka Dončić — he’s here to be Cooper Flagg.

Feb. 1, 2025 Lives in Infamy

The course of the Dallas Mavericks and NBA history was changed on that night. With zero warning, the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for just Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a singular first-round pick.

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The reaction was immediate. Mavericks fans flooded social media, ranging from claims that NBA insider Shams Charania’s X account was hacked, to declaring that they would never watch the Mavericks, or the NBA again.

The season that followed unraveled quickly, leaving Dallas outside the playoffs and searching for a new direction one year after winning the Western Conference. Their lost season earned them the 10th-best lottery odds in the 2025 NBA lottery. Against all odds, the Mavericks, who held just a 1.8% chance, won the NBA lottery. A 1.8% chance was the fourth-lowest odds to win the NBA lottery.

This was the first time the Mavericks had ever won the lottery. With that pick, Dallas found its next headliner: Cooper Flagg

Cooper Flagg Is “The Maine Event”

Hailing from Newport, Maine, the basketball world was made aware in 2022, when he won the Maine Player Of The Year, and averaged 25.4 points for the Nike EYBL team. After this, Flagg thought back to words from his mother: “If you’re the best player in the gym, you need to find a new gym.”

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He reclassified, entering college one year early, signing with the Duke Blue Devils. At Duke, Flagg nearly averaged 20 points per game, leading the Blue Devils all the way to the Final Four, all the while, drawing comparisons to NBA greats like Kevin Garnett and Kawhi Leonard for his dominating two-way style of play.

This is where Flagg is wildly different from Dončić. On the Mavericks, Luka could almost bend the speed of the game when the ball was in his hands, dominating tempo with hesitations and step-back threes that forced defenders to play on his terms.

Flagg doesn’t need to manipulate the game. His offense is generated by raw athleticism and instinct — cutting to the basket, attacking closeouts, and finishing above the rim. Where Dončić slowed defenses down, Flagg overwhelms them, turning movement and energy into points before opponents have time to react.

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Cooper Flagg is not Luka Dončić, and he never will be Luka Dončić. Where Dončić punished defenses with step-backs and deep threes, Flagg does his damage on the other end of the floor. His length, anticipation, and willingness to take on the toughest defensive assignment allow Dallas to play faster.

Former GM Nico Harrison was famous for saying that “defense wins championships,” as the reason for why he traded Luka. The defense that Flagg provides is something that Dončić was never capable of.

The Hard Part

But the differences are why the comparison feels unavoidable, and why it feels unfair. Luka didn’t just define how the Mavericks played. He defined an entire city for seven years.

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Flagg doesn’t offer what Luka did, and he’s not supposed to. His impact reveals itself over the course of a game, not in a single moment. Learning to appreciate that requires a different kind of patience from a fanbase still grieving what it lost.

In “Another Love,” Odell never offers a solution for emotional loss, and that feels intentional. Some things don’t have clean endings. The heartbreak of Luka Dončić being traded will always linger for Mavericks fans, and it should.

There is no rewriting what Dončić meant to the city. But moving forward doesn’t require forgetting, it requires understanding.

Cooper Flagg was never meant to replace Luka Dončić. He was drafted to be something different.

Appreciating that difference is how Dallas finds another love.

The post Cooper Flagg Is Not Luka Dončić, and That’s Okay for Mavericks appeared first on The Lead.