Dallas Mavericks fans have spent the last two years on a brutal emotional roller coaster, but Cooper Flagg has given the franchise something it badly needed: a reason to believe again.
The Mavericks were riding high in 2024 after reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011, even though they fell to the Boston Celtics in five games. Then came the offseason splash, with Dallas signing Klay Thompson to a three-year deal and looking like it had climbed even higher on the league ladder. For a moment, Mavs fans had every reason to think a championship was within reach.
Then the floor dropped out.
At the trade deadline, Dallas moved on from Luka Doncic, and that hit the fan base like a gut punch. The player Dirk Nowitzki passed the torch to was gone less than a year after leading the Mavericks to the Finals, and the mood around the team changed fast. The Mavs missed the playoffs after that, and for a lot of fans, the connection to the team just wasn’t the same.
Winning the NBA Draft Lottery changed the conversation, and Dallas used that pick to draft Cooper Flagg. For the first time since the Doncic trade, there was real excitement attached to the future.
Flagg backed it up with a huge rookie season. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the field. His defense, hustle, energy, and downhill driving made him must-see TV every night, even if the overall product in Dallas still wasn’t where fans wanted it to be.
The Mavericks finished 26-56 in Flagg’s first year and missed the playoffs for the second straight season, the first time that had happened since Luka’s rookie season. The team lacked the shooting and playmaking needed to keep up with the league’s best, but the outlook has shifted this season. With Flagg as the centerpiece, Dallas suddenly has a player who can help pull the fan base back in.
That part matters, because the Doncic trade didn’t just change the roster - it pushed a lot of fans away. Nobody saw that move coming, and the fallout was enormous. Flagg has started to repair some of that damage, slowly winning people back with his game.
The organization has changed plenty around him, too. Dallas brought in a new president of basketball operations, a new general manager, a new head coach, and overhauled the roster. But the biggest reason for optimism still sits right at the center of it all: Flagg.
He looks like a future NBA face, and he’s already on track to become the best two-way player the Mavericks have ever had. He takes defense seriously, can alter a game on that end by himself, and brings a physical attacking style that keeps pressure on the rim. He finishes with either hand, gets above the basket with ease, and is always hunting the kind of dunk that jolts a building.
And he’s not just effective - he’s fun.
Flagg is the kind of player who can throw down a monster dunk or come flying in for a huge block, and that makes him hard to ignore whenever the Mavericks are on. He also brings a relentless work ethic, and last season’s losing clearly sat with him.
Dallas may need time before it gets back to the NBA Finals, but the franchise has found its next cornerstone. After everything that happened with Doncic, that’s enough to give Mavericks fans something they’ve been missing for a while: a reason to smile.
In Other News...
Dereck Lively Stands Between The Mavs And A Scary Young Frontcourt
The Mavericks have reason to feel better about their long-term frontcourt picture after watching young talent start to stack up around Cooper Flagg and Morez Johnson Jr. If those two continue to develop as expected, the idea of a big, athletic, modern trio starts to look less like a theory and more like a foundation. Dereck Lively II is the piece that could make it click, giving Dallas the rim protection, vertical spacing and defensive anchor that can let the others play off him.
Livelys value is obvious, but so is the uncertainty that comes with counting on him to stay on the floor. His health will shape how the Mavericks map out the next phase of the roster, especially with the teams direction still subject to change and Kyrie Irvings future part of that larger conversation. Dallas can imagine a frontcourt built around youth and size, but the path from promising idea to dependable core runs straight through Livelys availability. [Read more 🡒]
Kyrie Irvings Return Could Change Everything For Cooper Flagg
The Mavericks enter a very different stretch than the one Cooper Flagg experienced in his rookie season, with Masai Ujiri taking over as general manager and Dusty May now on the bench. Flagg already showed he can handle the spotlight, but the roster around him is shifting in ways that could make his second year look much different, especially with Kyrie Irving set to rejoin the mix after his injury absence and Zaccharie Risacher also being evaluated as part of the bigger picture.
Irving's return matters because Dallas is no longer trying to build around a lone young centerpiece. Flagg had to navigate his first season without that kind of veteran backcourt partner, and the Mavericks now believe Irving's presence can help ease some of the pressure on their rookie star while giving the offense another layer of creativity. The real question is how quickly the fit takes shape and whether the new-look roster can turn all that promise into something more than just a talented collection of moving parts. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Could Make A Crucial Hire After Last Season's Medical Shakeup
The Mavericks spent last season dealing with a medical setup that came under the microscope, so it makes sense they are looking hard at the people behind the scenes now. One name to watch is Nico Berg, who has emerged as a candidate for the teams head of medical operations job as Dallas evaluates how it wants to rebuild that side of the operation.
Berg is not a longtime NBA fixture, which adds some intrigue to the process. His only prior consulting work in the league came with Minnesota more than a decade ago, so the Mavericks would be betting on a relatively fresh outside voice to help shape an area that can have as much impact on a season as any move on the roster. [Read more 🡒]