Teams dreaming about trading for Max Christie better wake up if rumors are true

When the Dallas Mavericks aren't meandering around Anthony Davis trade talks, they're focusing on the best way to construct an NBA championship contender around top pick Cooper Flagg. And those latter plans are the primary reason why the Mavs won't return any calls they receive on fourth-year guard Max Christie between now and the Feb. 5 trade deadline.

As NBA insider Marc Stein reported, Christie has emerged as a "prize member" of Dallas' post-Luka Doncic core. In fact, the Mavs' main focus for Christie during trade season is helping him get "an invite to the league's annual three-point contest at All-Star Weekend."

While there is surely a price point at which Dallas would have to consider a deal, it's almost certainly set so impossibly high that no one will ever offer it. Christie as, in other words, likely functionally untouchable—as he should be.

Max Christie is the Mavericks' clearest long-term fit with Cooper Flagg.

The Mavs probably have some curiosity—even if only a morbid one—about how Flagg might look alongside healthy versions of Davis and Kyrie Irving. They also surely have an understanding that Flagg should be their primary focus now, and his best basketball days are way ahead of him.

In other words, they'll have to prioritize his future over their present at some point, probably sooner than later. And as soon as that switch flips, they'll have to confront the fact that they're basically working with a blank-slate supporting cast around their prized prospect.

That basically qualifier is important, though. Because they shouldn't be starting from scratch, and if they keep Christie off-limits—and figure out how to help Dereck Lively II better elude the injury bug—then they won't be.

Christie looks like a keeper in his own right, but that status becomes a no-brainer when considering his tailored fit with Flagg. When Dallas starts assembling its Flagg-focused puzzle, it'll prioritize defensive versatility and lights-out shooting. Christie already checks both boxes.

He's a perimeter pest with enough quickness to keep up with speedsters and enough length to bother bigger guards. On offense, he's a truly elite sharpshooter. Among the 88 players to hoist 200-plus long-range looks, only one player betters Christie's 45.5 percent splash rate.

He's an all-purpose marskman, too. He can feast on catch-and-shoot chances (a must for complementary shooters), but he's also comfortable creating his own pull-up shots, or zipping past closeouts to step into midrange shots or motor his way all to the basket. He can fill a support role, but he isn't lost when he ventures outside of it.

At 22 years old, he's also one of the few timeline fits with Flagg on this roster. The Mavericks probably haven't seen Christie's best yet, but they have seen enough to trust that he works well with their most important player. That knowledge should be more than enough to keep snoozing through all reasonable, rational trade calls for Christie.