The Future of the Dallas Mavericks

Its no secret that the Mavs have faced heavy scrutiny over the Luka Doncic trade. While the feelings towards the franchise are rightfully justified, you can't help but feel like the Mavericks are back in the swing of things by securing the number one overall draft pick. While the process to get to this point wasn't ideal, it's time to stop looking at what we lost and focus on what's to come, which is probably the rising phenom Cooper Flagg.

Cooper Flagg is a 18 year old freshman out of Duke, although he probably didn't even need to go to college. Before the start of any basketball season. Last summer, The USA olympic team hosted private scrimmages featuring multiple high school stars across the nation. One of them was Cooper Flagg. Flagg didn't just impress, he astounded not only the coaches, but also some of the all time greats like; Lebron, Curry, and Kevin Durant. In his freshman season, Flagg averaged an impressive 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. Not to mention shooting 50% from the field and 37% from deep as a forward. Not just that, if you watched him, Flagg is nothing short of NBA ready. Although, he might have a little flaw, in the fact that he hasn't been tested yet, and doesn't really seem to handle close situations quite well. Duke's main strengths were blowing teams out fast, but in close games, they weren't at their best. This can be attributed to their meltdown in the Final 4 vs Houston, in which they only hit one field goal in the last 8 minutes. However, this is probably due to age, as Flagg is still very young, so he has a lot of time to grow. Pair him with studs like Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson: It seems like the Mavs are poised and are ready for another deep run like they had in the 2023-2024 season, but are they?

Let's rewind to the 2024 season. The mavs started out a little shaky after their finals run, but quickly picked it backed up and were well within the race for the first seed. Prior to February 1st, the Mavs sat at 32-28 and were the 5th seed, nothing to brag about but nothing to be dissapointed in. Then, it happened. Doncic was shipped to LA for AD and Max Christie. In a move that rightfully angered the fanbase. Let's try to look at why they did it. It's no secret that Doncic isn't a good defender, nor is he really in the best shape of his life. But when you say that, you expect Luka to be having a bad season or averaging far less than what he does. Well, Doncic was averaging 28 point 7 assists and 7 rebounds before the trade, and was fresh off of a season where he averaged 32 points 9 rebounds and 9 assists. He was also fresh off a finals run and a playoff run where he put up monster games and memorable moments. The Mavs tried to paint that Doncic had reached serious weight concerns and had injury problems. That would all be valid reasons to trade, if the person they traded for wasn't Anthony Davis who is literally the poster boy for Injuries. No matter what they said, no one believed them at all for what they were going to say. Some people(me) thought that Nico Harrison was some sort of inside agent for the Lakers and shipped Luka in order to join Lebron to boost NBA ratings. The point is, this move rocked the Mavs as a team, rocked them as a fanbase. And let's talk about the team first, they got Anthony Davis, who in his very first game, got injured. And was out for over a month. You heard that right, before finishing his first game with his new team, he got hurt. Shortly after Kyrie Irving got hurt, possibly due to the fact he had to play heavy minutes to make up for the fact two of his offensive stars were either hurt or no longer on the team. Not just hurt, a Torn ACL. For players like him, this could be career altering, especially at his age. The team started to dive and go on a losing streak. When it was all said and done, the Mavs were 39-43, out of the playoffs after just making the NBA finals last year. In this time period, the Mavs organization had the bright idea of raising their ticket prices for next season. I don't know a single damn world where that looks like a good idea, but I guess the Adelson family thought it was. Hey what do I know, I'm not the owner of a multi-million franchise. And Nico Harrison, boy, that man faced the most scrutiny I've seen or heard of since Lebron left Cleveland. Fans were openly chanting "F*ck Nico" in the middle of home games and had to be kicked out because of it. Attendance dipped at home games, what was once a rocking Dallas crowd had turned into a ghost town. Then, April 6th happened. Luka Doncic's return to Dallas, his home. That game might've been the first time a single player for the opposite team had home crowd advantage. Everytime he touched the ball, fans were cheering for him, regardless if he didn't wear blue and white anymore. And he repaid the fans generosity by dropping 45 point,14 Rebounds, and 9 assists. To top it all off, Nico Harrison, the man that had sent him away for no explanation and reason, was hiding behind a camera crew.

It all seemed bleak, until, somehow, with 1.8% odds, the Mavs got the number one overall pick. How? Well I'll talk about the draft lottery and its flaws for another time, however for this instance, its flaws played out in the Mavs favor. After one year of being in the finals, trading away the star player, going through all the scrutiny. The Mavs find themselves poised for the future and ready for what comes next. Unfortanately, there is still problems to root out, Kyrie and Klay are set to be free agents this year. Who knows if they want to stay in Dallas. and with most of the future pick traded away in deals made to ensure a championship team around Doncic in the past. The road back to stardom for the Mavs looks rocky, but not impossible.