The Dallas Mavericks have a new franchise cornerstone. As expected, the Mavs selected 18-year-old Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick.
Flagg was a sensation in his only year playing college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Flagg was the consensus college player of the year, only the fourth freshman to win the Wooden Award after averaging 19.2 points and 7.5 rebounds while leading Duke to the Final Four.
The 6-foot-8 forward led the Blue Devils in all five major statistical categories, and has already proven his game can hold up against the pros when he played well last summer during an invite to the U.S. Olympic team’s training camp.
Flagg will join a Mavericks roster already loaded with talent, including forward Anthony Davis and guard Kyrie Irving, who has reportedly signed a new 3-year contract with Dallas.
Flagg will wear No. 32 for the Mavericks.
Mavs general manager Nico Harrison said during a news conference after the draft that Flagg “has everything you want in a basketball player.”
The roster also features future Hall-of-Famer Klay Thompson, wing P.J. Washington, and centers Derrick Lively II and Daniel Gafford, who just signed a contract extension.
Harrison confirmed during the post-draft news conference that Jason Kidd will be the Mavs’ head coach next year.
A new era for the Dallas Mavericks
The addition of Flagg should help Mavericks fans turn the page on the Luka Doncic era. Less than five months before the NBA Draft, the Mavericks stunned the basketball world by sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a package that included Davis, guard Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick.
In the ensuing weeks, fans protested outside the American Airlines Center and called for Harrison to be fired.
A brutal string of injuries, which saw Davis, Irving, Lively and Gafford to all miss extended time, contributed to the Mavericks losing in the NBA Play-In Tournament just one year after making it to the NBA Finals.
There was a sense of pessimism around the team, but that all changed on May 12. The Mavericks won the NBA Draft Lottery, despite having just a 1.8% chance, and with it the opportunity to select Flagg.
