27-05-2025
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)
