Dallas trading Anthony Davis<\/a>, the 10-time All-Star who joined the Mavericks in a deal that cost them generational superstar Luka Doncic and sent their fans into a funk from which they\u2019re still recovering.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have an unbelievable player in Cooper Flagg,\u201d co-interim general manager Michael Finley, a former Mavericks player, said Thursday night during the announcement of a three-team trade involving nine players and five draft picks that are all going to Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have that type of draft capital, it gives yourself the ability to go out and put the proper pieces around him to make our team, like I keep stressing, a championship contender.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mavericks got Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson and Marvin Bagley III along with two first-round picks and three second-rounders from Washington for Davis, Jaden Hardy, D\u2019Angelo Russell and Dante Exum. Malaki Branham also was part of the deal for Dallas, which then traded him to Charlotte for Tyus Jones.<\/p>\n
Flagg entered Thursday\u2019s game against the San Antonio Spurs as the first teenager with three consecutive 30-point games, starting with the 19-year-old\u2019s 49-point outing against Charlotte that is a league record for the under-20 group. Flagg followed that with 34 points against Houston and 36 against Boston.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks lost all three games on Flagg\u2019s run to put their losing streak at five games, a season worst, which helps explain why the Mavericks moved on from the oft-injured Davis, currently sidelined by a hand injury, and chose another retooling of the roster over the chance to see Davis, Flagg and star guard Kyrie Irving on the court together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, as a fan, you probably would want to see AD, Kyrie, and Cooper on the court,\u201d said Finley, who shares the interim GM title with Matt Riccardi. \u201cBut we had an opportunity to do something to give us the ultimate flexibility in the future. We just felt that this was an opportunity to take advantage of that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Mavericks converted a 1.8% chance in the draft lottery for the right to select Flagg last summer, there was hope that the fog of losing Doncic would clear.<\/p>\n
Instead, Davis\u2019 injury woes returned amid a slow start by the team this season, as did the \u201cFire Nico\u201d chants that filled American Airlines Center in the final two months of 2024-25 after the Doncic trade engineered by then-general manager Nico Harrison.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks fired Harrison in November in part as a way to repair the relationship with the fans, and to acknowledge that the trade was a setback for the franchise.<\/p>\n
Now they\u2019ve moved on from their centerpiece in that deal, but Irving is the biggest remaining piece from the team that he and Doncic led to the NBA Finals less than two years ago. It\u2019s beginning to look as if Irving won\u2019t play at all this season after the nine-time All-Star tore the ACL in his left knee last March.<\/p>\n
Finley indicated the Mavs still have a vision of Flagg and Irving \u2014 both one-and-done No. 1 overall picks from Duke \u2014 sharing the court at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve both spoken to Kyrie at different points,\u201d Finley said, referring to Riccardi. \u201cKyrie has the ultimate respect for Cooper. He loves the kid\u2019s work ethic. He loves the kid\u2019s love for the game. And I think Kyrie\u2019s embracing the role as a mentor to Cooper. So it\u2019s going to be amazing to have a chance to see those guys on the court and playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fate of Flagg\u2019s rookie year is all but set \u2014 the Mavericks as also-rans in what appears to be a second consecutive season without a trip to the playoffs since the five-game loss to Boston in the 2024 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Coach Jason Kidd, the point guard for the franchise\u2019s only championship team in 2011, believes Flagg has the makings of a franchise leader, and the perseverance to work toward that first postseason chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bigger the stage, the bigger the light, the better game he has,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cHe wants to win. The 49 (points), the 36, they all have L\u2019s behind it. He wants the change that. He wants to win. I think the great ones learn how to change those L\u2019s into W\u2019s, and he\u2019s going to be one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg gives instructions during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":["post-585989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-mavericks","tag-basketball","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallasmavericks","tag-mavericks","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116023124320246849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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