At Dallas Mavericks media day in September, coach Jason Kidd insisted the team had both eyes fixated on the present.
The Mavericks might have lucked into teenage phenom Cooper Flagg in the draft, winning the lottery with just a 1.8 percent chance of doing so. But adding the Duke product to their aging and expensive roster hadn’t changed the team’s plans, according to Kidd.
Dallas wasn’t ready to hit the reset button … yet.
“You guys have talked about two different timelines,” Kidd said. “We can only be in the moment. That’s just today. … There’s only one timeline, and we are here to win.”
It’s possible the Mavericks could have been a force in the Western Conference this season if they had ever gotten healthy, but that never happened. Flagg, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving — three No. 1 draft picks — didn’t suit up for a single second together. Flagg leads the team in total minutes, but Davis has been limited to 20 games this season because of calf and hand injuries, and Irving hasn’t played at all while he works his way back from a torn ACL.
On Wednesday, the Mavericks decided to trade Davis, the centerpiece of their return in the shocking Luka Dončić deal just over a year ago. Dallas sent Davis, D’Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy and Dante Exum to the Washington Wizards for Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley II, two first-round picks and three second-round picks.
The move allows the Mavericks, who were right up against the $207.8 million second-apron payroll threshold, to drop below the $187.9 million luxury-tax line and restock their once-barren cupboard of draft picks. Additionally, the trade was an acknowledgment that, to give themselves a chance to build a competitive team around Flagg in the future, the Mavericks needed to take a step back. But moving Davis means the Mavericks are fully Flagg’s team now.
Flagg, who turned 19 years old in December, looks like a future All-Star, All-NBA player and perhaps even an MVP contender. Over his last three games, he is averaging 39.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists. All signs point toward him being a franchise player, but until Wednesday, the Mavericks’ pathways to improving their team around him were limited.
As part of the Davis deal, the Wizards are sending the Mavericks a 2026 first-round pick (one the Oklahoma City Thunder will likely convey) and a 2030 first-round pick that originally belonged to the Golden State Warriors (top-20 protected). That means the Mavericks effectively turned Dončić into Max Christie, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2029 first-round, two more firsts that will be in 20s, 29 games of Davis and three second-round picks. It’s an awful return for one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. And yet, the prevailing sentiment from Dallas’ fan base Wednesday seemed to be relief.
Mavericks fans were ready to completely move on from the Dončić trade and focus on Flagg. Firing former general manager Nico Harrison, the architect of the deal, on Nov. 11 was the first and most important step. Sending Davis to the nation’s capital was another.
Davis is owed $58.5 million next season and holds a $62.8 million player option in 2027-28. The Mavericks were never going to move forward with that money on their books. In the days leading up to the trade deadline, it seemed likely that the Mavericks could wait until this summer to move Davis. But Dallas’ front office — led by co-interim general managers Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley — chose to do the deal now.
The Mavericks, who had a 16-38 record without Davis, should have no problem securing a high lottery pick in the upcoming draft. Dallas (19-31) has the seventh-worst in the NBA, which would give it a 31.9 percent chance at a top-four pick if the season were over today.
Finding Flagg a running mate will be hugely important for whoever is running the Mavericks by then.
Dallas owes its 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets (top-two protected) and has its 2028 first-rounder tied up in a pick swap with Oklahoma City. The Mavericks’ 2029 first-round pick is headed either to the Houston Rockets or the Brooklyn Nets. By the time that pick conveys, Flagg will have just finished out his rookie contract.
Dallas can go into next season with a core of Flagg, Irving — whom the Mavericks don’t plan on trading before Thursday’s deadline, a team source said — Dereck Lively II, Christie, Naji Marshall and whoever Dallas adds with its first-round pick in June. That is a potentially fun nucleus that isn’t so old and expensive that it will keep hindering the Mavericks’ team-building efforts around Flagg.
Make no mistake: The path forward to building a sustainable winner around Flagg isn’t easy now. The Mavericks will have to place bets that pay off, as they did building around Dončić. But at least the Mavericks have picked the right route to go down and aren’t more focused on Davis’ present than Flagg’s future in Dallas.