Cooper Flagg's arrival won't trigger the bold trades Mavericks fans are begging for

After removing themselves from the Jason Kidd spectacle by officially denying the New York Knicks an attempt to poach away their head coach, the Dallas Mavericks set their sights on the NBA Draft in eight days, as they'll officially be able to select Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick. Flagg will be meeting with the Mavericks today for his official pre-draft visit, as he will get a formal introduction to what his time in Dallas is going to look like.

There's no question the Mavericks will take Flagg in this draft despite some fan conspiracies that they'd trade the pick, but the Mavericks will have plenty of questions to sift through this offseason in terms of figuring out how to build the best roster possible around Flagg, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis. One route the Mavericks certainly won't take, though, is blowing up the roster entirely and starting fresh by building around Flagg, as that is far too illogical for the Mavericks to do, despite a small portion of Dallas' fanbase pining for this outcome.

Proponents of this scenario cite Nico Harrison's incompetence as a General Manager, Kyrie Irving's torn ACL, Anthony Davis not being capable of being the best player on a championship team, and other factors as reasoning for why the Mavericks should trade most of their veterans away and start a new identity around Flagg.

Cooper Flagg won't trigger a Mavericks roster overhaul

While the Mavericks aren't guaranteed to make the NBA Finals or even be contenders next season, they have far too much stock in this current roster to blow it up entirely, even if they screwed up terribly by making the Luka Doncic trade last February. Harrison and Kidd are closely related to both Davis and Irving, and disbanding those relationships after Harrison just traded for Davis would be silly, as Harrison has strongly stated his belief in Irving and Davis being a dynamic duo, citing their brief time together in Davis's Mavericks debut versus the Houston Rockets.

However dumb Dallas' Doncic trade was by Harrison, he and the organization are going to try and stand by this move and their "defense wins championships" mantra until the ship has fully sank, as making a move of that magnitude requires Dallas to have strong belief in Davis being able to be the best player on a championship team alongside Irving. Despite how disastrous Dallas' season finished, it's too soon for them to abandon this line of logic when Harrison has made it the organization's mission statement for the last few months now.

If anything, adding Flagg to the mix will only serve as more of a justification for Dallas' front office in terms of their decision to trade Doncic, as the Mavericks could be one of the top teams in the West next season once they add Flagg and hopefully add a starting-level guard as well. It's undeniable that trading Klay Thompson, Irving, or Davis to try and fully rebuild a young roster around Flagg is intriguing in a vacuum, but the Mavericks have committed to this current core and owe it to the veterans on this roster to see what the potential of this team is when fully healthy.

The Mavericks and Harrison played with their food by trading away Doncic so quickly, but tanking in this new CBA environment doesn't guarantee a path to winning by any stretch of the imagination, as Mavericks fans all saw this past draft lottery. The Mavericks are positioned to be competitive next season with young players in Flagg and Dereck Lively II to build around once Irving and Davis are gone, and they need to do their best to strike the balance of two timelines, as a player like Flagg could be good enough off the bat to where Dallas could actually accomplish that feat.