The Mavericks, like the Warriors in 2020, will attempt a two-timeline approach
In 2020, the Golden State Warriors had the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft, which they used on James Wiseman. One year later, the Warriors held the Nos. 7 and 14 selections, where they took Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, respectively.
The decision to add three teenagers to a veteran-laden roster instead of trading the picks for proven help was the beginning of the Warriors' two-timeline approach.
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The Warriors wanted to compete for championships while also developing young talent Stephen Curry could pass the baton to in the twilight of his career, a plan that has had mixed results. The Warriors won the NBA title in 2022, but Wiseman didn't play at all in that postseason run, and Kuminga and Moody were relied on sparingly.
By February, the two-timeline plan had stalled. The Warriors were below .500 when they decided to make a win-now play for Jimmy Butler, a 35-year-old wing who gave them an immediate jolt.
The path the Warriors have been on the last five years has relevance to the one the Dallas Mavericks are about to go down. By all indications, the Mavericks will begin their own two-timeline approach when they draft Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick and put him next to Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Flagg doesn't turn 19 until December. He is so young that he would have been ineligible for the draft if he had been born 11 days later.
Flagg will join a team whose two highest-paid players, Davis and Irving, are 32 and 33, respectively. Davis is entering his 14th NBA season. Irving, currently recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee, is going into his 15th.
When healthy, the Mavericks should have three No. 1 picks in their starting lineup. The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Irving with the first selection in 2011 — when Flagg was 4. The then-New Orleans Hornets took Davis No. 1 in 2012.
A rule of thumb is that NBA rookies are rarely able to drive winning. Flagg has a good chance to be an exception, much of which is due to his ability to affect games even when he's not scoring. Flagg is a strong rebounder and an underrated passer. He moves well without the ball. His defining trait is his intensity from possession to possession. Talent evaluators rave about his motor.
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At the NBA Draft Combine, Flagg measured at 6 feet 7 3/4 without shoes with an 8-foot-10 1/2 standing reach. His size, along with his instincts and desire to compete on defense, allowed him to rack up 52 steals and 50 blocks in 37 games at Duke. At the pro level, Flagg should be a multipositional defender who wreaks havoc in passing lanes and provides rim protection.
The Mavericks traded for Davis with the idea of him playing heavy minutes at power forward. In Davis' first game with Dallas, the team blocked a franchise-record 18 shots. Adding Flagg to the mix gives the Mavericks the potential to be a ferocious defensive team that generates tons of turnovers and makes ballhandlers think twice about tiptoeing into the paint.
On offense, the Mavericks will have to find a way to stay afloat until Irving returns to the lineup. Their scoring numbers without him last season weren't pretty. Davis returned to the lineup on March 24 from a left adductor strain that sidelined him for six weeks. From that point until the end of the regular season, the Mavericks ranked 24th in offensive efficiency. Dallas attempted an average of 27.3 3-pointers per game in that 11-game stretch, about four fewer than the team that took the second-fewest 3s in that same time.
Flagg shot the 3 well in college (38.5 percent on 3.6 attempts per game), and he has good court vision. But asking him to be an offensive hub for Dallas early in his career is ambitious.
Right now, the Mavericks have one point guard under contract for next season who is expected to be healthy on opening night: Brandon Williams, who was on a two-way deal last season until he was upgraded to a standard contract in March. The Mavericks need to make a move to add guard help this summer, but because their roster is so expensive, their options to do so via free agency are limited.
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To acquire a difference-maker in the backcourt, the Mavericks might have to contemplate parting ways with some of their frontcourt talent. P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford are entering the final years of their contracts. They are quality players on medium-sized salaries who are likely to seek raises on their next deals.
With the Warriors' two-timeline approach, the major doubts about their plan were related to the team's young players. Curry and Draymond Green already had proved three times before the Wiseman selection that they could be the backbone of a championship team. Wiseman didn't pan out, and the Warriors moved on from him before the trade deadline in 2023. Kuminga remains a Warrior, but he is still trying to earn coach Steve Kerr's trust. Kerr benched him in critical moments of Golden State's playoff run this season.
In Dallas, the inverse could be true. The biggest question marks are reserved for the team's veteran stars. While Irving and Davis have championships on their résumés, neither has been the best player on a title team. And it's fair to wonder how they will hold up physically as they approach their mid-30s. Irving appeared in 58 games, then 50 games in his first two full seasons in Dallas, and he'll be coming off major surgery. Davis has played in more than 65 regular-season games only once in the last seven years.
Flagg is considered one of the best prospects of this millennium. NBA talent evaluators feel like he's a safe bet. The progress he makes offensively will determine his ceiling, but his defensive ability, his frame and his non-stop motor inspire confidence that he'll have a high floor.
Last summer, Flagg impressed as a member of the USA Select Team, which scrimmaged the U.S. Olympic team that would go on to win gold in Paris. Jamahl Mosley, the Orlando Magic coach who ran the Select squad, told reporters Flagg 'kicked butt' that week.
In one of the clips that surfaced from that scrimmage, Flagg brought the ball up the floor against Jrue Holiday. Flagg created enough separation off the dribble that he shook Holiday off him. Flagg then popped a pull-up 3-pointer with Davis in his grill.
At the time, neither Davis nor Flagg was a Maverick. The Luka Dončić trade brought Davis to Dallas in February, and in an indirect way, it played a part in delivering Flagg to the Mavericks, assuming they pick him No. 1 next month. The Mavericks likely wouldn't have fallen to the lottery if they'd kept Dončić because they would have been too good.
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Narrowly missing the playoffs gave the Mavericks just enough combination of ping-pong balls in the lottery to move all the way up to No. 1. Choosing Flagg gives the Mavericks someone to build around in the future while they attempt to win right now.
(Photo of Cooper Flagg: Melissa Tamez / NBAE via Getty Images)
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33 minutes ago
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34 minutes ago
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34 minutes ago
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Good morning, Early Birds. Here's hoping we see James Wood in the Home Run Derby. Send tips to earlytips@ Thanks for waking up with us. In today's edition … How abortion politics have changed in three years … An exciting race brewing in New York City … A well-funded, bipartisan anti-Trump political group launches … but first … Here's the latest on Iran. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran last night on Truth Social. Both sides would finish their operations against each other, then halt hostilities by around midnight Eastern time. 'This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn't, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!' he wrote. Israel and Iran didn't immediately confirm the ceasefire, leading to some skepticism from Democrats that it would hold. 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Wade was overturned, placing abortion access back in the hands of the states,' said Johanna Warshaw, a spokeswoman at the Democratic Governors Association, who cast Republicans Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia and Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey as 'deeply out of step with voters on this issue.' Activist Amanda Zurawski agrees: She was galvanized to campaign heavily for Democrats last year after nearly dying from a complication to her pregnancy in Texas. She said she was encouraged by victories on ballot initiatives in states, where voters largely supported access to abortion, and said she would continue speaking out to keep the cause a central tenet for Democrats. 'When people see this affect them personally, that's when they start speaking up and fighting back,' Zurawski, who hasn't ruled out a run for office, told us. 'We saw, and we continue to see, time and again, that when reproductive freedom is on the ballot, it wins.' 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This is where things could get interesting, as Sarah Ellison notes in her story on the race. Cuomo has elicited a visceral response from a range of candidates, leading to a potent 'anyone but Cuomo' contingent in the race. So if enough voters don't rank Cuomo at all, a first-choice lead could quickly evaporate, making the race unpredictable. A $15 million ad campaign will tell the stories of Americans who have been hurt by Trump's second-term policies, operatives behind the plan tell us, aiming to highlight where the president has fallen short of his campaign promises. The bipartisan campaign — called 'Home of the Brave' — brings together an array of anti-Trump political figures, including Susan Rice, a former top adviser to Democratic presidents; Barbara Comstock, a former Republican representative from Virginia; and Michael Luttig, a former Republican judge who testified before the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by a mob of Trump supporters. The first slate of stories includes a Virginia mother who relies on federal research for her special-needs child, a small-business owner in Indiana harmed by Trump's tariffs and a federal contractor who lost her job because of Trump's cuts. 'Regular Americans aren't afraid to speak out about what's happening to our country,' said Sarah Longwell, a Republican operative who has worked to oppose Trump for years and is a member of the group's board. 'That's why we're launching Home of the Brave — to give regular Americans a place to tell their story about how the Trump administration is harming them, their communities and their country.' (Pennsylvania): A blistering heat wave is sweeping the central and eastern United States, with temperatures reaching into the 90s and 100s, affecting about 170 million Americans. Bring Me the News (Minnesota): American cities and states are being put on alert after the U.S. strikes on Iran, reflecting the Homeland Security Department's warning of a 'heightened threat environment' across the country. 'While there's no known threats at this time, we'll continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly,' Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said. The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington): Washington state is joining several other states by levying tobacco taxes on Zyn, the popular nicotine pouches. Are you worried about the United States striking Iran's nuclear program? Do our readers see any echoes of the United States' conflict in Iraq? And are you surprised that the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is backing such an active foreign intervention after running on ending foreign wars? Send us your thoughts at earlytips@ or at and Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan and Matthew on X: @merica and @matthewichoi.
