{"id":591895,"date":"2026-02-09T05:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/591895\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T05:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:34:15","slug":"mavs-notes-flagg-middleton-jones-bagley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/591895\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs Notes: Flagg, Middleton, Jones, Bagley"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the consensus No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 draft, Cooper Flagg<\/a> appeared likely to become the new face of a franchise for a rebuilding team. Instead, after the Mavericks lucked into the top pick on lottery night, he joined a club that already featured a pair of veteran stars \u2013 Anthony Davis<\/a> and Kyrie Irving<\/a> \u2013 and hoped to make it back to the playoffs right away.<\/p>\n

Less than a year later though, with the Mavericks holding a 19-33 record, Irving still not back from a torn ACL, and Davis having been sent to Washington at this week\u2019s trade deadline, Dallas has become exactly the kind of rebuilding club that Flagg seemingly avoided last June.<\/p>\n

In trading Davis to the Wizards, the Mavs are handing the former Duke star the keys to the franchise and placing a new level of responsibility on his shoulders, writes Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News<\/a> (subscription required). For his part, Flagg seems unfazed by the change in plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it doesn\u2019t really change much,\u201d he said on Saturday. \u201cI\u2019m just gonna go out there every night and try to be consistent and try to be the best version of myself. Whatever that looks like, whoever is out there with me, I hope we just compete at a very high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a slightly slow start in the fall, Flagg has ramped up his production over the course of his rookie year. The NBA\u2019s youngest player has increased his season-long averages to 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game and is shooting 48.4% from the floor and 80.6% from the free throw line. His ability to quickly adjust to the NBA game gave the front office the confidence to move on from Davis and pivot to Flagg\u2019s timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a special individual at just 19 years old,\u201d interim co-GM Matt Riccardi said, per Curtis. \u201cHe carries himself at a mature age. Everything he does is just natural to him. He is genuinely that person and we\u2019re lucky to have him and grateful that we get to build a roster around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Mavs:<\/p>\n

While there has been some speculation that veteran forward Khris Middleton<\/a> could emerge as a buyout candidate after being traded from Washington to Dallas in the Davis blockbuster, there\u2019s no indication that\u2019s the plan in the short term. Middleton joined his new team in San Antonio on Saturday and is hoping to make his Mavs debut on Tuesday in Phoenix, tweets<\/a> Christian Clark of The Athletic.
\nHaving traded three guards (D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a>, Jaden Hardy<\/a>, and the injured Dante Exum<\/a>) to the Wizards along with Davis, Dallas tweaked the deal to make it a three-teamer that sent Tyus Jones<\/a> from the Hornets to the Mavs. Head coach Jason Kidd said on Saturday he expects Jones to be \u201csuccessful\u201d with the Mavs, lauding the point guard for his \u201cextremely high\u201d basketball IQ (Twitter video link<\/a> via Curtis). Jones had four points and seven assists and was a +18 in 17 minutes in his first game as a Maverick.
\nJones wasn\u2019t the only new Mav who had a strong debut on Saturday in a losing effort in San Antonio. Big man Marvin Bagley III<\/a> racked up 16 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks in 24 minutes off the bench. According to Curtis<\/a>, his eight offensive rebounds represented a franchise record for a Mavs debut. \u201cI just tried to go out there and play my game and be myself,\u201d Bagley said. \u201cIt was a lot of traveling the last couple of days, coming into Dallas yesterday, doing physicals and getting right on a plane to come (to San Antonio). But that\u2019s a part of it. That\u2019s a part of the job. I just tried to control what I could control and do my best to be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the consensus No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 draft, Cooper Flagg appeared likely to become the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,225,2039,6338,6279],"class_list":{"0":"post-591895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-khris-middleton","11":"tag-marvin-bagley-iii","12":"tag-tyus-jones"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116039050525999729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591895","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=591895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}