Mavericks' plan for building around Cooper Flagg should thrill fans

Cooper Flagg is as good as the Dallas Mavericks hoped he would be. Almost one full season in to his NBA career, I am already confident in declaring that. It might be tough challenging Victor Wembanyama for "best player in the league" for the next decade, but Flagg has as good a chance as anyone to do that.

Despite the Mavs clearly tanking the rest of this season, it's encouraging to see that Flagg won't enter his second season with a dearth of talent around him. Some No. 1 picks have been forced to wait years to have legit NBA-caliber rosters around them. Some (think Anthony Davis in New Orleans) never found team success in their original homes, in part because of how hard it is to build from the ground up.

Next year's Mavericks roster isn't a finished product, but there's at least a foundation there. That does so much more for an elite player's development than people realize. Flagg already looks elite on most nights, and getting as much NBA talent around him as possible starting next year will accelerate an already rapid rise. I may be in the minority here, but I would much rather a young player be surrounded by established veterans heading into year two than have bad teammates and a lot of cap space. Give me the sure thing every time.

A roster with PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively, Max Christie, Khris Middleton on a two-year deal (I am manifesting that for this summer), and Kyrie Irving is not a bad starting point for year two of Cooper Flagg.

Mavericks will have a competitive roster around Cooper Flagg

There's no doubt about the Mavs goals for the 2025-26 season; they want to lose. That goal has been accomplished, as the team has won two games over the past month and will probably win about three more before the end of the regular season.

But that losing was accomplished without fully gutting the roster, which still has plenty of NBA-level talent, and will get star point guard Kyrie Irving back to start 2026-27, along with a lottery pick who will hopefully give Flagg a longterm partner in the starting lineup.

Of course, adding a young superstar to a team that's already contending would be a dream scenario — but that's not realistic. Usually, players like Flagg are added to teams that are years away from fielding a competitve team. Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a summer in Oklahoma City where folks questioned if he would get fed up with all the losing.

Cooper Flagg probably isn't loving all the losing this team is experiencing right now, to be fair. But if all goes according to plan, this is the only season in which he'll have to lose to this degree.