Mavericks' lottery flop opens a hidden door for the Cooper Flagg era

Despite the Dallas Mavericks falling to ninth in the NBA Draft Lottery yesterday after initially having a 61.91 percent chance to pick in the top four or remain at eight, Mavericks fans should be confident in the team's new leadership to find great value here. No one wanted Dallas to fall in the lottery, but this misfortune opens the door for the team's new leadership to roll up their sleeves and show fans why Patrick Dumont brought them in.

Mike Schmitz, Dallas' new general manager, is one of the hardest-working executives in the entire league, giving the Mavericks a real advantage over other teams in the lottery. Fans may not have known this when the team made the hire last week, and the team falling in the lottery gives him a shot at finding an excellent player in the back half of the lottery, where plenty of guard talent will be.

Not every team has a scouting guru like Schmitz as their GM, and he'll be hungry to help Masai Ujiri make a splash in their first draft with the team. Dallas having a successful draft this year would give them an incredible opportunity to start the first year of the Cooper Flagg era strong, and their young core would be set for years to come if they can ace this pick.

Mike Schmitz and Masai Ujiri will find Dallas a gem at No. 9

Just last year, we saw Ujiri ace his first-round pick when he was still with the Toronto Raptors. It also happened to be the ninth pick, the same pick that he has this year for the Mavericks.

Ujiri drafted Collin Murray-Boyles from South Carolina with this pick, and he was one of the best value picks of the draft. He averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 65.6 percent from the field in the playoffs for Toronto this season, and Dallas will be in an incredible spot if Ujiri can pull off this kind of magic again.

This year's draft class is one of the deepest that we've seen in recent memory, and the top 10 is likely going to be filled with talented point guards. Keaton Wagler, Darius Acuff Jr., Mikel Brown Jr., Kingston Flemings, and Brayden Burries are all projected to get drafted in the lottery, and the Mavericks should be able to get at least one of them.

Dallas should be eyeing a guard to play behind Kyrie Irving after watching how their backcourt play went this past season, and a young guard to play alongside is exactly what Flagg needs. Irving is going to be a good co-star for Flagg for a few seasons, but Dallas also needs someone to take the baton from Irving when it's his time to hang up the sneakers. This is where the 2026 draft class comes into play.

Brown Jr. has already publicly said that he loves the city of Dallas since the lottery yesterday, making him someone that fans are already eyeing. Wagler and Acuff Jr. have been fan favorites among Mavs faithful for the last few months as well, but the chances of them being on the board at ninth are slim.

The Mavericks have their Batman, they just need to find his Robin

Regardless, fans should believe in the team's new front office. Schmitz and Ujiri's relationship goes back years, and their trust for one another, combined with their basketball expertise, should produce a productive draft. They also already have the hard part out of the way, as they have their franchise cornerstone in Flagg. They just have to find someone to play with him now.

Schmitz's basketball career is filled with extensive scouting experience, including working for ESPN and DraftExpress covering the NBA Draft, and these days prepared him for his first draft as GM of an NBA team. Schmitz's rise to become a GM after landing his first job in the league in 2022 as an assistant GM is a testament to how hard a worker he is, and he's confident that they can find an impact player with the No. 9 overall pick.

"Very confident," Schmitz said when asked about how confident he is that the team can land a rotation player with their lottery pick. "I think we want someone who can bring a variety of different skills and bring a mentality that we’re looking for. But we’re really confident we can get a rotation-level player, and we’re gonna do everything we can."

The lottery didn't go the way that they would have hoped, but Mavericks officials with boots on the ground in Chicago at the NBA Draft Lottery and Combine still think that they can land a good player at No. 9. This is where the scouting and digging in the weeds comes into play, and Dallas has two of the best in the game at this with Schmitz and Ujiri.

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