DALLAS — Earlier than the Dallas Mavericks gained the NBA draft lottery and the suitable to pick Cooper Flagg, common supervisor Nico Harrison stated he was getting ready for a choose across the eleventh spot.
Which begs the plain query: How rather more draft prep did Harrison must do?
“Not an excessive amount of,” Harrison stated as he resisted the urge to chortle.
It is turning into fairly the Duke plan for Harrison and firm.
The sudden fortune of profitable the lottery with a 1.8% likelihood paid off Wednesday night time when Dallas took Flagg No. 1 general about 24 hours after the Mavs agreed on a brand new contract with Kyrie Irving. The nine-time All-Star guard was the highest select of Duke 14 years in the past.
As soon as Irving returns from a torn ACL, most likely two or three months into subsequent season, a wholesome Dallas beginning lineup is prone to embody three one-and-done Blue Devils. The Mavs acquired heart Dereck Full of life II with the twelfth general choose in 2023.
Dallas gained the lottery Might 12, somewhat greater than three months after the seismic commerce of younger celebrity Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, a transfer that enraged a lot of the fan base.
Irving’s damage March 3 in opposition to Sacramento really performed a task in Dallas ending up with Flagg. All of it however ended any practical playoff hopes for the Mavs, with Davis already sidelined by a groin damage sustained in his Dallas debut rather less than a month earlier than Irving went down.
Davis finally returned, and the Mavericks secured the final spot within the Western Convention play-in event a 12 months after representing the West and shedding to Boston in 5 video games within the NBA Finals. Dallas gained at Sacramento earlier than shedding at Memphis with the No. 8 seed within the playoffs at stake. A win there would have saved the Mavs out of the lottery.
There was by no means a lot query that Irving would return, and the transfer was anticipated when he declined his $43 million participant possibility for 2025-26 and agreed to a $119 million, three-year cope with a participant possibility within the last season.
Irving additionally signed a three-year cope with a participant possibility the offseason after he joined the Mavs in a commerce with Brooklyn. The thought was to pair him with Doncic for deep playoff runs, however Dallas missed the postseason in 2023 earlier than reaching the finals for the primary time since 2011 final 12 months.
Davis and Irving each have participant choices in 2027-28, when Flagg shall be coming into the third 12 months of his rookie deal.
“We had an important week,” Harrison stated. “Clearly, there’s a number of stuff we will not say. However we had been in a position to have preliminary conversations with a few our guys. And we be ok with the end result of that.”
Flagg is the second No. 1 general choose in Dallas franchise historical past. The Mavericks took Mark Aguirre out of DePaul in 1981. Flagg’s new coach, Jason Kidd, was the second general choose by the Mavs in 1994.
Dallas was coming off its growth season when Aguirre was picked, so it goes with out saying the high-scoring guard did not have a lot round him. Flagg involves Texas underneath a lot totally different circumstances.
The Mavericks are within the distinctive place of letting The Related Press males’s school participant of the 12 months discover his approach surrounded by achieved veterans. Irving gained a championship with LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, and Davis paired with James to convey the Lakers their seventeenth title 5 years in the past.
The closely criticized Harrison has maintained that the rapid objective of a championship did not change when he traded Doncic. The type of play in making an attempt to win one is what modified, he stated, with an emphasis on protection.
Harrison believes Flagg matches the profile of a two-way participant. The 18-year-old was speculated to be graduating from highschool about now, till he modified the timeline by going to Duke a 12 months early and main the storied program to the Ultimate 4.
“I feel it’s really superior that any individual will get to develop on their very own time, no matter that’s, and we now have the help that we are able to permit him to develop on his personal time,” Harrison stated. “We’ll be capable to win when he’s having good video games and likewise win when not having his greatest.”
Davis’ intensive damage historical past did not do a lot to spice up Harrison’s perception after the commerce that the Mavs had been set as much as win now and sooner or later. The lottery win gave Dallas an opportunity to domesticate its subsequent generational expertise lower than six months after giving up the one it had.
“I feel it is win now,” Harrison stated. “It’s additionally win sooner or later. Finally, it’s going to be Cooper’s crew. We don’t when that transition will occur. So I feel win from time to time set your self as much as win in future as properly.”
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