The Dallas Mavericks have quite a few options on the table after winning the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. Despite having 1.8% odds of doing so, they jumped all the way up to the first pick with a transcendent talent on the board: Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
Taking Cooper Flagg seems like the easy decision, but with Nico Harrison still sitting as the General Manager, anything is on the table. He traded Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, willingly shortening the team’s title window by five years, because he thought it would help the team win now.
So, would he entertain a trade for a star like Giannis Antetokounmpo with a valuable first-overall pick in his back pocket?NBA agent Rich Paul, the CEO of Klutch Sports and represents stars like Anthony Davis and LeBron James, appeared on the Pat McAfee Show to discuss what he believes the Mavericks will do with the first overall pick.
“No. I think there’ll be no trade. I think the Mavs take him [Cooper Flagg]. And I think it’s the right thing for the kid. Obviously, there’s some teams there that would love to have him, but I think when you look at Cooper Flagg, look at where he’s at today, his ability to develop next to guys like AD and [Dereck] Lively, and also playing with Kyrie [Irving] once he’s back, it helps him. Oftentimes, guys go No. 1 [overall], and we put so much expectation on these young players, and that’s not really realistic. So, this allows him to develop on a real timeline, he gets to play through mistakes without all the pressure being on him… and expect him to get 25-30 points a game. That’s not realistic, especially equating to wins. And so I think this would be a great environment for him, not saying that if he went to Utah or went to San Antonio it wouldn’t, but I know you think number one, you think lead guy right away, but it’s okay to develop into that guy.”
That’s a sigh of relief to Mavericks fans, as Flagg can help bridge the gap between the older stars on the team, like Davis and Irving, and the next generations of the Mavs. The future was looking bleak with no first-round picks from 2027 to 2030, but Flagg projects to be good enough to help the team through that.
