The Mavericks are already being linked to Kawhi Leonard, and the fit on paper comes with a familiar kind of danger for Dallas. Leonard turns 35 years old today, has not played more than 68 games in a season since his San Antonio Spurs days, and there is no guarantee he would stay in Dallas beyond next season. For a team trying to build around 19-year-old Cooper Flagg, that is a lot of risk to attach to an aging star.
That risk should sound familiar in Dallas. The Mavericks have already lived through one aggressive attempt to accelerate a young superstar’s timeline, and the lesson from the Luka Doncic years is hard to miss: when you have a teenage centerpiece, patience matters.
Doncic made it obvious early that he was different. As a rookie, he put up 21.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game.
After that Rookie of the Year season, he made the All-NBA First Team five years in a row. Dallas knew exactly what it had.
Instead of building slowly with draft picks and young talent, the Mavericks moved fast. They sent Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, DeAndre Jordan, and two first-round picks to the New York Knicks for Kristaps Porzingis, Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Courtney Lee.
Those two picks could have turned into young players who grew alongside Doncic. Instead, they were gone.
Dallas also made another costly move in that era by trading a first-round pick for Christian Wood. He lasted one season, and the Mavericks didn’t even make the playoffs that year.
The Porzingis gamble never really paid off, either. He played 134 games for Dallas, and his stint was marked by injuries and dysfunction alongside Doncic, even though he had shown major promise in New York before the trade. However you frame it, that deal backfired.
For all the urgency, the Mavericks only got a handful of first-rounders onto the roster with Doncic. Josh Green in 2020 and Dereck Lively II in 2023 were the only first-round picks Dallas made that he actually played with. Much of the rest of the team came from trades, second-round picks, or free agency.
That approach produced five playoff series wins. It also got Dallas to the Western Conference Finals in 2022 and the NBA Finals in 2024, but there’s still no trophy for second place.
Now the organization has to resist repeating the same pattern with Flagg. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs offer the cleaner model: draft your stars, keep them, and let the roster grow with them. Those are the top two teams in the Western Conference for a reason.
Dallas needs to follow that road, not cut across it. Flagg has to be allowed to develop, and the players around him need to arrive on his timeline. That makes draft capital especially valuable, even if the Mavericks do not have much of their own to work with until 2031.
They do have some pieces to use. Dallas has pick swaps in 2028 and 2030, and it owns the Los Angeles Lakers’ pick in 2029. Those assets need to be part of the plan if the goal is to build a contender around Flagg.
The Mavericks got off to a strong start on that front last week by drafting Morez Johnson Jr. and Sergio De Larrea in the first round. That kind of move makes sense. Trading those kinds of assets for Kawhi Leonard would be the opposite.
If the Clippers are asking for multiple first-round picks, Dallas should stay away. The Mavericks already learned the cost of trying to speed-run a rebuild around a young star. They can’t afford to repeat that mistake with Flagg.
In Other News...
Mavericks Suddenly Have A Bigger Daniel Gafford Dilemma Than Expected
Dereck Lively IIs recovery has become a quiet but important subplot for the Mavericks as they move deeper into the summer. Dallas entered the offseason with the idea that its center depth was manageable, but Livelys slower-than-expected progress has complicated that picture and forced the front office to think harder about how much pressure it can place on the middle of the roster.
That matters because it changes the calculus around Daniel Gafford, who had been a realistic trade candidate in a crowded frontcourt. If the Mavericks cant count on Lively to be ready for the start of the regular season, leaning on rookie Morez Johnson Jr. for meaningful minutes becomes a much tougher sell, and it could push Dallas toward other roster fixes instead, including a possible look at Marvin Bagley III or even a different trade path. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Just Ran Into A Daniel Gafford Decision They Can't Ignore
The Mavericks offseason has already brought a new coach in Dusty May and a fresh addition in forward Morez Johnson Jr., but the bigger roster question may still be the one sitting in the frontcourt. Daniel Gafford has been a useful piece for Dallas, yet his name has stayed in the trade conversation as the team weighs how to shape the roster around a new direction and a different kind of interior anchor.
What makes the situation tricky is that Gaffords market has not matched the kind of return Dallas would need to justify moving him. His offense has limitations, and his rim protection is not viewed as perfect enough to boost his value the way the Mavericks might want. With Dereck Lively II looming as a possible centerpiece of the front line, Dallas now has to decide whether Gafford fits the next phase or becomes a player they hold onto while waiting for the market to change. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Are Flirting With A Win-Now Move Cooper Flagg Doesnt Need
The Mavericks offseason conversation is already bending toward a familiar Dallas debate: how hard should a team push its chips in when the future is sitting right there on the roster? According to The Athletic, the club has shown trade interest in Kawhi Leonard, with a potential package built around P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson and draft capital, a kind of win-now swing that would certainly change the look of the roster in a hurry.
The hesitation is obvious. Leonard is on the back end of a massive deal and the timeline attached to him does not exactly match a front office that is supposed to be building around 19-year-old Cooper Flagg. Add in the risk of sacrificing useful rotation pieces and future flexibility for a star whose contract status leaves little long-term certainty, and the appeal of the move starts to look a lot less clean than it does on the surface. [Read more 🡒]