Three Things NBA Preview: Dallas Mavericks
As I detailed a few weeks ago, I’m once again re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2025-26 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Dallas Mavericks, who traded Luka Doncic to the damn Lakers and then somehow nabbed the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
Cooper Flagg, on-point
I don't think Cooper Flagg is a point guard. I don't think there was anything about his profile that suggested he should be a point guard. And yet, I can't help but kind of endorse Jason Kidd's plan to play him as a point guard this season.
"I want to put him in the at the point guard," Kidd said in Flagg's introductory press conference. "I want to make him uncomfortable and see how he reacts. Being able to run the show, being able to play the 2, play the 3. He's comfortable playing [the 3], but we want to push, and I think he's going to respond in a positive way. It's all right to fail. It's all right to turn the ball over. We've talked about that."
...
"Just understanding the guys that I've been around that have been young, from Giannis, giving him the ball, and he failed. But he wanted to come back and have the ball, so I'm excited about giving [Flagg] the ball against the Lakers [in Summer League] and see what happens. Let's get it started right off the bat."
The Mavericks without Kyrie Irving do not have many good options at point guard. (I continue to think that we will not see Kyrie this season. The injury occurred late in the year. He's a small guard entering his mid-30s who is wildly dependent on his quickness and athleticism to be at his best. And both he and Kidd have — smartly, if you ask me — tried to slow-play his progress to date, even while Nico Harrison talked him up as being ahead of schedule.) It's D'Angelo Russell, Brandon Williams, Jaden Hardy, Dennis Smith Jr., technically Dante Exum, and Ryan Nembhard, who is on a two-way. The "best" of those options is probably Russell, and those of you who are longtime readers or followers of my work probably know how I feel about that being considered a top option for any team.
To me, it makes far more sense for the Mavs to try to maximize Flagg's on-ball reps and, as Kidd said, let him fail and keep going, than it is to maximize Russell's minutes and try to win maybe one or two more games because of it. It's much more important to their present and their future that Flagg become the best, most well-rounded version of himself, and giving him those on-ball reps will allow him to do that.
Is it going to be frustrating at times playing a rookie who is not a point guard, at point guard? Hell yes it is. But that's fine! He's the most important player and person in the franchise right now. Maximizing him is important enough to let those frustrations slide off your shoulders. It will make him a better player in the long run, and that's what matters.
Kidd brought up the comparison to Giannis, and while I don't think anyone — even a prospect as good as Flagg — should be compared to Giannis in really any way, I like the comparison here because it's just about the experience of using a big wing player out of position in order to eventually make it so that he can use that skill set in his proper position, and be better for it. Giannis is as good a playmaker as he is today at least in part because he was put in position to make plays with the ball in his hands before he was really ready to do it. I do believe that.
I should note that I actually didn't endorse Kidd's plan for Giannis at the time, but in retrospect I see how important it was for his development. So I'm changing my tune here. There is still a latent fear that playing out of position and potentially failing at it could stunt development rather than buoy it (we occasionally see this happen in football with quarterbacks who are asked to do too much early in their careers and never recover), but Flagg is a good enough player and (reportedly) hard enough worker that I'm not too worried about his traveling down that path.
