Mavericks' new Cooper Flagg vision came a year too late

The Dallas Mavericks have officially committed to being "future-based" around Cooper Flagg, according to Masai Ujiri, and this is the perfect vision for this team. Ujiri knows this is Flagg's team now, and he understands they don't need to rush to contend. This is the exact mindset he needs to be taking as he begins building the roster. They have a long runway to win titles thanks to Flagg, and his stupendous rookie season was just a sneak peek into the player he'll become.

Unfortunately for Mavericks fans, Dallas' pivot to win later rather than now came a year too late. This is a decision they should've made right after drafting Flagg, given his sky-high potential, but Nico Harrison was too focused on pushing for the NBA Finals with Anthony Davis at the head of the snake.

Masai Ujiri is the opposite of Nico Harrison

Ujiri has a completely opposite plan from Dallas' former GM.

"Every decision we are going to make here is going to be future-based," Ujiri said on Wednesday. "We have a 19-year-old generational player on our roster, and we have to think that way. We're not going to make decisions based on winning today."

Harrison's entire vision was "win-now," even after winning the draft lottery and selecting one of the best prospects of this century. His failure to pivot and fully build around their teenage superstar cost them. If Dallas accepted defeat on the Davis-Luka Doncic swap, moved Davis in the offseason, and made other future-facing moves before the 2025-26 season, they would've been in the perfect position to surround Flagg with a team that complements him one year earlier.

They would've also been able to prioritize draft lottery odds and begin building a young team to contend for titles for years to come.

The Anthony Davis experience was never going to work, and with how poorly things went during his first few months with the team, they should've known it was going to come crashing down. He was never going to be able to justify Harrison's decision to trade Doncic, and they could've gotten ahead of that by moving Davis in the summer of 2025 for a more appealing trade package.

Dallas should've embraced this plan last year

Harrison, of course, would've needed to get fired for this move to happen, and this obviously should've happened far sooner as well. Even Dirk Nowitzki believed Harrison should've been fired last offseason, and this would've saved the Mavericks a ton of stress this season.

Dallas immediately became a more future-focused team the second they fired Harrison in November, and their series of moves in February reflected this. They traded Davis to the Washington Wizards and shut down Kyrie Irving for the season while Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley were the co-interim general managers. Now, with Ujiri in charge, he's all about the long game.

They're going to bring in players that optimally fit around Flagg, and Ujiri can't wait to get to work. He has a track record of building special rosters, and Mavericks fans should be excited to see how he attempts to progressively build an NBA Finals contender.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow