Mavericks look smarter by the day as Cooper Flagg reminds everyone who he is

As much as Dallas Mavericks fans wanted Cooper Flagg to seize control of the Rookie of the Year race before the end of the season, Kon Knueppel was the betting favorite per FanDuel Sportsbook ahead of this past weekend. However, following 51-point and 45-point performances in back-to-back games, Flagg is solidifying that he should win the award, and this couldn't have happened if the Mavericks had elected to sit him down the stretch of the season.

At 25-53, it makes sense from a tanking perspective as to why Dallas could've shut down Flagg for the rest of the year a few games ago. However, Dallas doesn't want to send a message that they aren't trying to win to their uber-competitive young star. They weren't sitting out any other players down the stretch of the season anyway, so it would have been pointless to make Flagg sit out games down the stretch of the season to potentially increase their draft lottery odds ever so slightly.

Dallas made the right move by not shutting down Flagg

Flagg is only 19 years old, so he should be featured in all of Dallas' games, whether they are tanking or not, as the experience he is gaining in real games is invaluable at this juncture in his NBA career. Perhaps a fringe argument could be made to sit him down the stretch of the year if the draft lottery odds hadn't been curbed as they have in the past few years, but this isn't the case anymore.

The Mavericks literally leapfrogged to the No. 1 pick last season despite having the 11th-best chance at doing so, and while they are only a half-game back in the loss column from having the sixth-best chance at the No. 1 pick compared to the eighth-best chance, they made the right decision to let Flagg claim what he rightfully deserves.

Moving up in the lottery isn't worth sacrificing Flagg's ROTY case

If Dallas elects to sit Flagg in their regular-season finale, or play him only in the first half of that game, that'd be one thing, as manipulating one game in an effort to better their odds isn't that egregious compared to what other teams have done this season. Dallas clearly isn't trying to get fined $750,000 for overtly tanking as they did in 2023, and with Flagg being the type of competitor he is, it's smart for them to avoid that sort of negative press for him and the team.

There's no debate that adding a talent from this year's draft class will go a long way in terms of how good Dallas is next year, as well as what their future looks like around Flagg, but this shouldn't come at the expense of his Rookie of the Year case. With Dallas not even sniffing the play-in, they owed it to Flagg to give him a fair chance to compete for the award down the final stretch of the season, especially given all the adversity he's had to face with an evolving Mavericks franchise this season.