DALLAS (AP) — Before the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery and the right to select Cooper Flagg, general manager Nico Harrison said he was preparing for a pick around the 11th spot.
Which begs the obvious question: How much more draft prep did Harrison have to do?
“Not too much,” Harrison said as he resisted the urge to laugh.
It's becoming quite the Duke plan for Harrison and company.
The sudden fortune of winning the lottery with a 1.8% chance paid off Wednesday night when Dallas took Flagg No. 1 overall about 24 hours after the Mavs agreed on a new contract with Kyrie Irving. The nine-time All-Star guard was the top pick out of Duke 14 years ago.
Once Irving returns from a torn ACL, probably two or three months into next season, a healthy Dallas starting lineup is likely to include three one-and-done Blue Devils. The Mavs got center Dereck Lively II with the 12th overall pick in 2023.
Dallas won the lottery May 12, a little more than three months after the seismic trade of young superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, a move that enraged most of the fan base.
Irving's injury March 3 against Sacramento actually played a role in Dallas ending up with Flagg. It all but ended any realistic playoff hopes for the Mavs, with Davis already sidelined by a groin injury sustained in his Dallas debut a little less than a month before Irving went down.
Davis eventually returned, and the Mavericks secured the last spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament a year after representing the West and losing to Boston in five games in the NBA Finals. Dallas won at Sacramento before losing at Memphis with the No. 8 seed in the playoffs at stake. A win there would have kept the Mavs out of the lottery.
There was never much question that Irving would return, and the move was expected when he declined his $43 million player option for 2025-26 and agreed to a $119 million, three-year deal with a player option in the final season.
Irving also signed a three-year deal with a player option the offseason after he joined the Mavs in a trade with Brooklyn. The idea was to pair him with Doncic for deep playoff runs, but Dallas missed the postseason in 2023 before reaching the finals for the first time since 2011 last year.
Davis and Irving both have player options in 2027-28, when Flagg will be entering the third year of his rookie deal.
“We had a great week,” Harrison said. “Obviously, there's a lot of stuff we can't say. But we were able to have initial conversations with a couple of our guys. And we feel good about the outcome of that.”
Flagg is the second No. 1 overall pick in Dallas franchise history. The Mavericks took Mark Aguirre out of DePaul in 1981. Flagg's new coach, Jason Kidd, was the second overall pick by the Mavs in 1994.
Dallas was coming off its expansion season when Aguirre was picked, so it goes without saying the high-scoring guard didn't have much around him. Flagg comes to Texas under much different circumstances.
The Mavericks are in the unique position of letting The Associated Press men's college player of the year find his way surrounded by accomplished veterans. Irving won a championship with LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, and Davis paired with James to bring the Lakers their 17th title five years ago.
The heavily criticized Harrison has maintained that the immediate goal of a championship didn't change when he traded Doncic. The style of play in trying to win one is what changed, he said, with an emphasis on defense.
Harrison believes Flagg fits the profile of a two-way player. The 18-year-old was supposed to be graduating from high school about now, until he changed the timeline by going to Duke a year early and leading the storied program to the Final Four.
“I think it’s actually awesome that somebody gets to develop on their own time, whatever that is, and we have the support that we can allow him to develop on his own time,” Harrison said. “We’ll be able to win when he’s having good games and also win when not having his best.”
Davis' extensive injury history didn't do much to boost Harrison's belief after the trade that the Mavs were set up to win now and in the future. The lottery win gave Dallas a chance to cultivate its next generational talent less than six months after giving up the one it had.
“I think it's win now,” Harrison said. “It’s also win in the future. Eventually, it’s going to be Cooper’s team. We don’t when that transition will happen. So I think win now and then set yourself up to win in future as well.”
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Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press
