{"id":593599,"date":"2026-02-10T00:48:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593599\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:48:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:48:30","slug":"why-mavericks-forward-naji-marshall-fits-perfectly-in-rebuild-around-cooper-flagg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593599\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mavericks forward Naji Marshall fits \u2018perfectly\u2019 in rebuild around Cooper Flagg"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> are rebuilding around Cooper Flagg<\/a>, but they aren\u2019t starting from scratch.<\/p>\n

There are several players on the current roster who could be long-term fits around the 19-year-old rising star, <\/a>which won\u2019t require the Mavericks to rely solely on bringing in external pieces to complete the full puzzle needed to be competitive again in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

An instrumental part of the new rebuild could include Naji Marshall,<\/a> who has been one of the most consistent Mavericks over the last two seasons during a tumultuous period marred by inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

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Mavericks interim general manager Matt Riccardi<\/a> had one word to describe Marshall and Max Christie\u2019s fit around Flagg in the aftermath of the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfectly,\u201d Riccardi said before elaborating. \u201cWe really like them as players. We think they fit really well around Cooper, but most importantly, those guys embody what we want in the organization. We love what they bring to the table, both on and off the court, and their personalities. They\u2019re Dallas Maverick players.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several reasons why Marshall, who was a desirable player by rival teams at the trade deadline, could be a complementary piece next to Flagg.<\/p>\n

Marshall has been a model of consistency since he signed a three-year contract in the summer of 2024.<\/a> He\u2019s the team leader in games played this season, with appearances in 51 of 52 contests entering Tuesday\u2019s matchup against the Phoenix Suns, on pace to shatter his availability in 69 of 82 games last season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been the best statistical season for the sixth-year forward, who\u2019s averaging career-highs in points (14.7), rebounds (5.0), assists (3.0), steals (1.0) and field goal percentage (52.5%).<\/p>\n

Marshall had an off night on Saturday in San Antonio<\/a> with six points, three rebounds and five assists, but he accomplished something alongside Flagg that had only been done once before this season on Thursday. Both forwards scored 32 points in their home loss to the Spurs<\/a>, marking the second time the Mavericks had two 30-point scorers this season since Flagg (33) and Anthony Davis (31) did so on Dec. 23 against the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Scoring occurrences of that magnitude were normalized under the former Mavericks duo of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, but Marshall didn\u2019t want to make a big deal out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody cares about little ole me. Let Coop have all the shine, man,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cI\u2019d rather play the back anyway. I\u2019m cool with just being Robin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall has publicly voiced a desire to play alongside Flagg for the rest of his career. He is under contract for one more season in 2026-27 before he becomes an unrestricted free agent the following summer.<\/p>\n

Throughout his tenure as a Maverick, he\u2019s shown the ability to play both sides of the floor with physicality and tactfulness. He\u2019s one of the team\u2019s enforcers, willing to go the distance to protect his teammates \u2014 on and off the court. He also has a signature shot, the floater, which has proven to be reliable when he needs a sure way to score.<\/p>\n

That skillset could pair well with someone as competitive as Flagg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want guys that embody what [Flagg] embodies,\u201d Riccardi said, \u201cwhich is the toughness, the high IQ players, unselfish, hard-nosed defenders, cares about the team more than they care about themselves. Those are the guys that win in this league. Those are the guys that have success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall signed up to play for a team that was one month removed from playing in the NBA Finals, but circumstances have given him an opportunity to play substantially more than he would\u2019ve if the Finals team remained intact.<\/p>\n

When asked why he\u2019s adamant about staying in Dallas long-term, Marshall said it\u2019s because of his love for the franchise, city and fanbase.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we\u2019ve been through, the fans still show up,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cMatt Riccardi, Michael Finley, they make me feel comfortable and they\u2019re doing an unbelievable job\u2026Coach Kidd, the players, it\u2019s just all a comfortable fit for me. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the team, from the front office to the equipment managers, it doesn\u2019t matter. Everybody\u2019s the same to me and everybody\u2019s shown great love and I feel like we just one big family, so it\u2019s just a blessing to be here and I\u2019m just thankful that those guys picked me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The Dallas Mavericks are rebuilding around Cooper Flagg, but they aren\u2019t starting from scratch. There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[1297,7,225,149,3716,166,6,969,474,4075,4074,66,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-593599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cooper-flagg","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-jason-kidd","13":"tag-mavericks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-san-antonio","16":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","17":"tag-sanantonio","18":"tag-sanantoniospurs","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116043587113136848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593599","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=593599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}