Mavs' no-brainer with Cooper Flagg is latest in what is becoming quite the Duke plan
Associated Press
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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New York Times
19 minutes ago
- New York Times
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Four conference rooms. Three pitch meetings. All for one chance to land a future star. Rewind to May 20, 2024, the day three factions of rival apparel company executives descended on the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. The purpose of their one-day visit? Woo Cooper Flagg, the then-17-year-old wunderkind widely considered one of basketball's budding young stars. Advertisement In hindsight — especially after Wednesday night, when the Dallas Mavericks selected Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — it feels foolish for anyone to have ever doubted Flagg's trajectory. But at the time, the 6-foot-8 forward had yet to play a minute of college basketball at Duke. His unofficial breakout at Team USA's pre-Olympic training camp — where he more than held his own against the likes of LeBron James and Steph Curry — wouldn't happen for another two months, either. Still, Flagg oozed such potential that high-profile apparel brands were lining up to work with him when he was just a high school junior. In the fall of 2023, when the Newport, Maine, native opted to reclassify and enroll at Duke a year early — effectively skipping his senior season of high school — NIL (name, image and likeness) offers came fast and furious. Chief among them were major shoe companies like Nike, Adidas and New Balance, all wanting to sign Flagg to their star-studded rosters. Flagg, his family and his representation wanted that major decision settled before he arrived on campus in Durham, N.C., so he could focus on hoops. That meant devising a solution: They'd hear pitches from three select companies, all on the same day, and then pick their future partner once the meetings concluded. 'Like a movie,' said Naveen Lokesh, New Balance's global marketing director of basketball and football, who also spearheaded the company's pitch to Flagg. 'Almost like 'Air.'' On pitch day, the groups of executives huddled in their Four Seasons conference rooms for final rehearsals. Quietly, New Balance was confident in its pitch — particularly with one secret component, which it hoped would make all the difference. Lokesh and his team entered a separate conference room where Flagg, his family and his Creative Artists Agency (CAA) team waited to be wowed. Lokesh wasted no time playing the high notes. He reminded the Flaggs how every summer they used to attend a tent sale every summer at New Balance's factory in Skowhegan, Maine — a half-hour drive from Flagg's hometown — and pick out sneakers for the upcoming school year. (Kelly, Flagg's mother, even remembers doing the same when she was a little girl.) Lokesh stressed how important New England was to New Balance, which is based in Boston, as well as the Flagg family. They discussed philanthropy opportunities and product possibilities, and they reiterated that the privately owned brand was not looking to sign Flagg as one of a number of new athletes. Advertisement Rather, New Balance only wanted him. An all-in bet. 'If he goes to another brand,' Lokesh remembered saying, 'they're going to do great storytelling, and they're gonna have great products. Great marketing, big campaigns. All the things we can do.' Pause. Secret weapon time. 'There's one more thing we want to show you,' Lokesh continued, 'that nobody else can show you or give you. It's a small message.' Suddenly, a video started playing of the Skowhegan factory, countless assembly lines within it and the process of a custom pair of basketball shoes being made. At one point, the father of one of Flagg's former grassroots teammates — who still works at the facility — made an appearance. Then another worker shortly thereafter, proudly proclaiming that, 'Cooper Flagg being from Maine and being the basketball prodigy that he is, it just gives you that sense of pride.' Eventually, the 53-second clip ended with a still shot of the gray shoes, with 'FLAGG' stitched directly onto the tongue. As the lights came up inside the Four Seasons conference room, Lokesh pulled out his grand finale: The pair of custom shoes from the video, straight from Maine, still the only pair of Cooper Flagg New Balances in existence. 'It was pretty cool to see that video and the Maine shoes and some familiar faces,' Flagg told The Athletic. 'That meeting, going through their plans and kind of the future they saw for me, it just aligned really well with the future that I saw for myself.' In December 2023, two months after Flagg committed to Duke, Lokesh was sitting in New Balance's Boston headquarters when chief marketing officer Chris Davis swung by his desk and plopped down a magazine. It was a copy of SLAM magazine — the edition with Flagg on the cover celebrating his commitment. 'Go get him,' Davis told Lokesh. 'He's perfect.' Lokesh understood the challenge in doing so. Landing Flagg would represent New Balance's biggest basketball acquisition since 2018, when it signed likely Hall of Famer Kawhi Leonard away from Jordan Brand. That move reignited a basketball line that had been dormant since the 1980s, back when James Worthy was still New Balance's signature basketball athlete. And while New Balance had complemented Leonard with other top NBA players over the last seven years — including Jamal Murray, Dejounte Murray and Tyrese Maxey — it still looked for another top-line star. Advertisement New Balance's basketball division saw that person in Flagg. He was someone, depending on how his career broke, who could carry the larger mantle alongside brand's other worldwide faces: tennis star Coco Gauff, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani and Arsenal midfielder Bukayo Saka. From December until May, Lokesh and his team researched what it would take to make the landscape-altering signing. They dove into Flagg's humble origins and came to appreciate someone who preferred a tight-knit circle over mass exposure. Their priority on keeping jobs in New England aligned with Flagg's overwhelming support for his home region. Perhaps most importantly, New Balance's private 'boutique' approach meant they could sell Flagg on being a centerpiece rather than just another face in the crowd. That last piece appealed to Flagg and his family in a major way. In fact, it was one of the deciding reasons they eventually chose New Balance over other apparel companies — including Nike, which sponsored the EYBL grassroots circuit Flagg played and starred in. 'It was just the way that they were willing to believe in Cooper and invest in him early on and say, 'He's our guy,'' Kelly Flagg said. 'They had a very clear strategic plan of how they were going to implement him into their space, and there was a clear path to him potentially getting his own shoes or his own things — where some of the other companies were playing it maybe a little more safe and saying, 'You know what, we'll see how he does,' and kind of put it on the shelf.' After the Four Seasons meeting, New Balance was firmly in the driver's seat to land Flagg, but it still needed to seal the deal. Lokesh wanted to arrange for the entire family to fly to Boston to meet with Davis, someone they'd be working with directly on many of Flagg's future endeavors. But it was already June 2024, and the Flaggs had scattered: Cooper was on Duke's campus; his twin brother, Ace, was back in Maine training with former Boston Celtics center Brian Scalabrine; and his parents were in the process of moving to Greensboro, N.C., where they stayed all of last season to be close to both boys. In the days leading up to the Boston meeting, Lokesh overheard Kelly lamenting how she hadn't seen Ace in a while because of the chaos. So when Davis eventually booked Cooper's and his parents' flights to Beantown, he also scheduled a car service to drive Ace down for the day. Not for any business reasons. Just to show what New Balance was about. 'We're not signing Ace, but come on. Your mom's here,' Lokesh said. 'This is how a family brand works.' There was only one major hiccup in Flagg signing with New Balance. Duke was a Nike school. Per the university's Nike agreement — which is standard across college athletics — Flagg would only be allowed to play in Nike apparel during his time in Durham. New Balance could still sign him to a personal, long-term brand deal … but for a year, as Flagg was exploding on the college basketball scene, the company would have to watch him in a rival's apparel. It was an unforeseen complication in the NIL era, especially amid one of the most lucrative individual apparel deals a college athlete has signed to date. Advertisement No wonder that back in the Four Seasons conference room, one of Kelly's first questions was, 'How would we handle this?' 'We're in it for the long term,' Lokesh told the Flaggs. 'One year of him wearing a direct competitor's product will not upset us or ruin something we know is great down the road.' Instead, Duke and New Balance were proactive to work around the situation. Between Duke's two summer school sessions, for example, Flagg flew home to Maine and shot the advertising campaign New Balance used to announce his signing in October 2024. The company also outfitted Flagg — and his family, which had accrued a healthy amount of rival apparel during Flagg's grassroots career — in more New Balance gear than they could fit in their closets. Flagg and Duke coach Jon Scheyer even had a 'friendly conversation,' in Scheyer's words, during the preseason about how they'd manage the arrangement. 'If anything, in 2025,' Scheyer said, 'the player has the power to do whatever they want.' But Flagg never forced the issue, understanding the terms of the dual contracts he was bound by — although he did still bust Scheyer's chops a time or two about wanting to wear New Balances in a game. 'I mentioned it a couple of times,' Flagg said, grinning, 'but it was always just jokes.' 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'I don't know how many people there are in Maine, but I imagine that they're gonna sell out pretty quickly.' Advertisement Back when Flagg was a kid, getting a new pair of shoes every summer at the Skowhegan tent sale, he never could have imagined that one day, shoes bearing his favorite colors might be sold at the same place. Now that he's on the precipice of that reality, it's only underscored that he and his inner circle made the right choice 13 months ago. 'That was never really a thought, or anything I thought would be reality,' Flagg said. 'But definitely going through it now, it's really cool to just be in the position of seeing how it all works and being given these opportunities.'
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USA Today
26 minutes ago
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Smith has a 19-point lead over teammate Freddie Freeman at the moment, scary company to keep. But the batting average only scratches the surface of Smith's value to the Dodgers. He's batting a majors-leading .426 with runners in scoring position, a testament to his ability to clean up hitting behind Freeman, Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani. His .425 OBP leads the NL. And while 13 Dodgers pitchers are currently on the injured list, Smith's 3.2 WAR is tops among NL catchers and seventh overall, helping the superteam stay on track. Like his AL counterpart Raleigh, keeping up that pace at the plate will be challenging given the work asked of him behind it. Yet unlike Raleigh, Smith doesn't get the occasional DH day since Ohtani occupies that spot, giving him more chances to truly sit on his average. Come and get him, fellas. Colorado Rockies: 125 losses This one's gonna be fascinating, in a grim kind of way. As you might have heard, the Rockies steadied the ship just a bit after a 9-50 start. Yet after a 15-game stretch of winning baseball (OK, 8-7), there they went again, losing six of seven to fall back under what we'll call the Reinsdorf Line. Yep, the Rockies need to win at better than a .253 clip to ensure they don't break the 2024 Chicago White Sox's modern record of 121 losses before the ink in the record books had a chance to dry. It's true: The Rockies are playing much better than when they were losing 21-0 and firing their manager. Young players such as Michael Toglia are gaining their footing, and catcher Hunter Goodman is a bona fide All-Star. Problem is, the '24 White Sox only bottomed out in historic fashion after the trade deadline, when they shipped off Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham and others, leaving a ship rudderless. They went 9-39 in the immediate aftermath, cinching their spot in infamy. So how might the Rockies look, post-deadline? There's honestly not a ton to deal, unless they finally move third baseman Ryan McMahon, or spin off veteran pitchers Antonio Senzatela or German Marquez, further destabilizing the rotation. If they're so inclined, their top asset, given the incessant need for relief help at the deadline, might be right-hander Jake Bird, who gets plenty of swing-and-miss (11.5 Ks per nine) and will have three seasons remaining before free agency. Yet that might make them inclined to hold him, as well. Either way, it's highly probable the Rockies will look different – read: worse – after July 31. And that much harder to avoid history. The big question: Will the 2024 White Sox pop champagne and light cigars if the Rockies break their record, or keep it intact? The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
