Mavericks' Kawhi Leonard rumors mirror a Luka Doncic mistake they can't repeat

The Dallas Mavericks are interested in trading for Kawhi Leonard, and this rumored deal already comes with some serious risks. Leonard hasn't played more than 68 games in a season since his time with the San Antonio Spurs, and there's no guarantee he would re-sign with Dallas after next season. But more importantly, trading real assets for a player who turned 35 years old today is not the correct blueprint to utilize when building around 19-year-old Cooper Flagg.

The Mavericks learned how not to build around a teenage prodigy during the early years of Luka Doncic's career, and they can't make this same mistake with Flagg. Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz have a long runway to form a contender around Cooper Flagg, and they need to be extremely cautious about trading future assets for an aging star.

How the Mavericks rushed the Luka Doncic era

At the beginning of Doncic's career, the Mavericks could already tell that he was going to be something special. He averaged 21.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game as a rookie, and he followed up his Rookie-of-the-Year season by making the All-NBA First Team five years in a row. He was the real deal, and that was evident right away.

Rather than patiently building around the Slovenian superstar with draft picks and homegrown talent, Dallas went all-in fairly quickly. They traded Dennis Smith Jr., a player they drafted ninth overall the season prior, 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.

Two draft picks that could've been later used to draft young players to play with Luka were gone in the blink of an eye.

The Mavericks didn't even give Doncic a full season in the NBA before trading for his co-star. The NBA world was on fire when this deal went down, but it worked out poorly. Porzingis only played 134 games for Dallas, and his time with the team was defined by injuries and dysfunction with Doncic, despite showing immense potential in New York before the deal. To put things nicely, this move blew up in the Mavericks' face.

Another risky move that the Mavs made during the Doncic era was trading a first-round pick for Christian Wood. He only played one season with Dallas, and they didn't even make the playoffs that season.

The only first-round picks that Dallas made after drafting Doncic that he got to play with during his time with the team were Josh Green in 2020 and Dereck Lively II in 2023. The rest of the players that Dallas brought in after drafting Doncic were guys that the Mavs traded for, drafted in the second round, or signed in free agency.

Their ultra-aggressive strategy to build around him only resulted in five playoff series wins. Doncic helped the Mavs reach the NBA Finals in 2024 and the Western Conference Finals in 2022, but there's no trophy for second place.

Dallas has to take a different path with Cooper Flagg

Teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs have this right. They've drafted most of their current star players, and now they're the top two teams in the Western Conference. If Dallas wants to be in this conversation, they can't skip steps and can't do the same thing that they did with Luka.

They need to let Flagg develop, bring in players on his timeline, and utilize the limited first-round draft capital that they have to draft complementary pieces who can grow in Dallas alongside him. The Mavs already had a great start to this plan this year by drafting Morez Johnson Jr. and Sergio De Larrea in the first round last week.

The draft is one of the best ways to build a contender, as it gives you an avenue to handpick a young, cost-controlled player. There's always the risk of a player being a bust, but picks are valuable when you're trying to build around a young superstar.

Trading for Kawhi Leonard would be the exact opposite of building for the future, and it would be a major win-now move. Dallas can't afford to make such a move right now, and if the LA Clippers are commanding multiple first-round picks, Masai Ujiri should hang up the phone right away.

The Mavericks don't fully control any of their own first-round picks until 2031, but they do have some pick swaps coming up. Dallas has pick swaps in 2028 and 2030, and they own the Los Angeles Lakers' pick in 2029. These first-round draft picks, regardless of quality, need to be utilized in an effort to build around Flagg.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and Dallas learned this the hard way with Luka Doncic. They can't make the same mistake with their new franchise cornerstone.

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