Dallas Mavericks win NBA Draft Lottery: What you need to know about Cooper Flagg

Dallas Mavericks win NBA Draft Lottery: What you need to know about Cooper Flagg

The second pick will be made by the San Antonio Spurs. And that means that the number one pick in the 2025 NBA draft goes to the Dallas Mavericks. Plant the flag, Mavs fans, because by all accounts, Duke Phenom Cooper flag is coming to town. The Dallas Mavericks, for the first time in franchise history, win the NBA draft lottery and will presumably take Duke freshman phenom Cooper flag in next month’s NBA draft. We’re talking all about that tonight on Freefor All. It starts right now. [Music] Hey guys, welcome to the show. Sam G alongside Mike Ducey and joining us live here in studio on a very, very short notice. Maz broadcaster Brian Dearis. Brian, welcome. A 1.8% chance. So, you’re telling me there’s a chance? Here’s how crazy it was. The Mavericks were the only team in NBA history coming into this lottery that never moved up even one spot in the draft. They’d either stayed the same or gone down every single time. They were the only team and San Antonio who they were up against for that last spot. and I think 10 lotteryies or something around there had gotten the number one pick three times, including just a couple of years ago with Victor Wimbeyama. So, uh needless to say, I was screaming like a teenage girl in my uh my house when that went down and it changes everything. Yeah, we want to get into all aspects of this thing with you. Yeah, we were uh in disbelief at the sports office as it was happening earlier as well. And I’m sure Mavs fans all over the place were, as you put it, screaming like uh like teenage girls. Let’s get into the into the player himself here whom the Mavs will I’m still going to say presumably pick with that number one overall pick. Duke Phenom Cooper flag 69 uh just 18 years old. Doesn’t turn 19 until December 21st. This news comes just a little over three months of course since Nico Harrison and the Mavericks decided to trade Luca Donuch to the Lakers. Flags a young guy who’s a lead on both ends of the floor. unanimous first team all-America last season 19 points 7 and a half rebounds four assists block and a half a steal and a half a game 48% from the floor 38 and a half% from downtown led the blue devils to a 35 and4 record final four appearance where they fell to Houston flag swept all the national awards wooden award award at national player of the year honors here’s flag uh moments after learning that the Mavs had won the lottery and the young guy sounds as surprised as everybody else. Yeah, I didn’t try and think about it too much. Um I feel like it was kind of out of my control. So, um I’m just kind of going through the process like everybody else and just trying to enjoy every single moment cuz we only get to do this once. Well, for us it’s been a it’s been a rough year as you all know, but the uh the important part of the whole thing is that we’ll get a chance to move our franchise forward. We have a tremendous tremendous uh staff and management and the important factor for us is to being able to continue in that tradition and to be able to move forward. It’s uh it’s really really a great honor and it’s an important piece of the puzzle because uh we want a hoop down in Dallas. The second pick will be made [Music] by And that was the Mavs brain trust as they watched the lottery at a local Chicago restaurant. You can see here Mavs general manager Nico Harrison with a bit of an extra pep in his step these days. They’re understandably thrilled as the Mavs overcome long odds, pretty much all odds to literally win the lottery and number one overall pick in this draft. Mark Cuban through email telling Fox 4, “It’s unreal. I’m still shaking. First time we have ever moved up. I was screaming the whole time with my son. Brian, we’ve got a social media reaction of plenty. Patrick Mahomes, big fan of the Mavs, saying, “Oh my gosh, let’s go.” PJ Washington, current member of the Mavs with the eyeball emojis. Mike Madano, the Stars legend, flag for Luca. Straight up. The Dallas Wings chiming in. Number one pick party in Dallas. That’s right. two two number ones and Kevin Love saying there’s no effing way his former teammate LeBron James with the crying laughing emojis and Mina Ks of ESPN say being a Mavs fan right now has to be insane like you’re 99% happy but 1% mad that they’re getting away with it no you’re not Mina so Brian draft is June 25th in Brooklyn as you said the Mavs have a prime opportunity here to take the number one overall selection no way they’re trading that pick, right? Got to get that out of the way. Generational player along the lines of frankly Luca when he was coming out, uh LeBron James, Victor Wimbeyama. Those are the names that you’re seeing uh Manny about. Like you said earlier, he turns 18 four days before Chris turned 19 four days before Christmas. He he should have just finished his senior year in high school. Fourth person ever to be national player of the year as a freshman. Uh, all those stats you rattled off. 197 and four, a block and a half, a steal and a half, 39% from deep. Humongous basketball IQ. I went to SMU and saw that game there in person. There’s really nothing he can’t do. He can handle the ball. An absolute stopper one through five when you’re switching defensively. Can do help defense as well. Uh, just really can do everything. Can create his own shot and he’s only going to continue to get better. This is a guy that’s a gym rat. Uh there were people who worked with him at 14 years old. They said he was the best 14-year-old they’ve ever seen and these were people that played in the league. He played against Team USA last year in Vegas and they were just like floored by what he was able to do. I mean, this changes everything for the next 17 to 20 years for this franchise. Well, we’ve thought that about other players, too. So, let’s tap the brakes. 17 or 20 years now. And not to harp on this, but you know, and social media drives it, but you’re hearing Giannis talk out there. You’re hearing, man, if you could package this with something else and get Giannis, who’s presumably on his way out of Milwaukee, wouldn’t that make some sense? You’re saying that’s not there’s no possibility something like that happens. Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. I I think this is the kind of player that uh is going to be the best player on a franchise that wins a title at some point in his career. and just his learning curve is just a hockey stick going up. Giannis is 30 years old. Uh he’ll be able to play until he’s 40. I think he’s that good. He keeps himself obviously in tremendous shape and he’s a great piece to have. Um and I think maybe he was a player that before this the Mavs with three number ons and you know a stable of of quality players could have made a run for him. Um, but now, you know, that’s just not something that I think I would do because then you’re saying, okay, we have a three-year window and after that then it’s Giannis with what? Well, that’s what Milwaukee is doing. And then you got to turn around and do it. This is something. And the key part of this, you got him under control now salary-wise for four years. You can play him now with AD, Kyrie, Lively, and you’ve got a really good roster. You just slot him into the three from day one. You can win now and you can win later with him. Brian, obviously it was a terrible year for the franchise with the Luca trade. Does this give Nico a a chance to even redeem himself? I don’t even know that those are the right words because it was luck that they won this draft lottery, although we do have pretty much every fan saying the league is rigged after what happened tonight. Is there any chance he can get the fans back? Get the fans back on the right side of things. Yeah, I think so. You know, this is a a ray of light and a and a darkness. Rose said it, you know, really well uh afterwards with uh SiriusXM radio. I heard an interview he did where, you know, it’s just there’s been a lot of uh uh bad juju, bad vibes around here. And this this kind of turns that the other way. Still a lot of work to do. Uh it changes how you look at the summer. I think maybe Giannis would have been something they would have tried to swing at this summer. Um and and now you look at okay, who’s who’s your two going forward? You got Clay right now. Uh, and that’s great, but now you can really look at what you want to do with other pieces to kind of solidify that roster knowing you’ve got that piece under good salary control. And it it really changes all the dynamics of what you’re doing. Yeah. and and Flag is the rare player, isn’t he, at that age who again, you think, and you never know until you see a guy at the highest level consistently, but he’s the rare talent who presumably can step in and fit right away with a bunch of uh veterans and make it uh potentially good team, even better. I think he can score 20 points a game in his freshman year. I mean, his his first rookie year. And, you know, because again, you saw Derek Lively was a player who never had a double double in college. Duke is more of a system type uh situation there where they don’t really kind of, you know, look at one player to really go score 30 points or more. He’s got a lot more in him. His growth is just off the charts. Again, that brain uh what he’s able to how he’s able to see the court, his passing, his ability to close and finish, uh that one through five switching ability defensively. Um I I think everybody’s going to fall in love with him and that’s going to be a lot of what’s going to bring those fans back as well. When you look at the potential starting lineup, Brian, providing this team is healthy, just how lethal of a lineup can this be when you enter in Cooper Flag? Well, defense wins championships. I don’t know if you’ve heard that. I heard that somewhere. Yeah. But, uh, defensively, this is a long, hugeized team. I wrote a pretty brilliant article in D magazine last week. I’m sure you read it about kind of the blueprint of what what’s goes on. But a lot of the lot of what Nico said and I think what is where the the league is going versatility he has that both on both sides of the ball uh in and size. So now you’ve got AD Lively, uh, Flag in as your front court. Really, that’s a lot of size, a lot of length. Then you’ve got PJ Washington, you’ve got, uh, Naji Marshall, you got players like that that can come in off the bench, uh, and continue to provide size. He, you know, he’s a point forward. He can bring that as well on that end. Um, so, you know, in terms of where the league is going, he’s got that. He’s got that that distance, a 39% from three. That’s only going to get better. again 18 years old. He should have been a senior in high school. Yeah, it’s phenomenal. We had the Mark Cuban quote earlier and Brad Towns in the morning news uh had information saying that it was Cuban who actually called Patrick Dumont and informed him that this had happened. Dumont was at uh one of his children’s sporting events and that uh according to Brad, he wasn’t sure if Dumont was able to understand it because Cuban was screaming so incoherently. Can you imagine? And and you hate to look in any anybody else’s mind or heart, but the mixed emotions that Mark must have tonight as he’s excited for this franchise, but in a different way than he would have been a couple of years ago. Yeah. And I think there’s always uh something of, you know, gosh, you know, I I wish I was still kind of running the show and all of that, but but you know, I’ve talked to him tonight as well and he is absolutely stoked. He wants the Mavs to uh you know, we were talking about, you know, how we wish we were still in it. You know, I wish I was still calling games. He wished he was still baseline watching playoff games and especially in in a season where the West is wide open. I think in my opinion, um where you’re seeing, you know, Oklahoma City be a little vulnerable and obviously the Lakers went out and players like Houston number two sees out. you think you could have made a run, but you know, none of this happens um without Mark and it’s I I understand the whole rigged question. Well, and and it is and the rigged thing is out there. Yeah. And and if another team had a 1.8% chance to win the lottery and had won it tonight, that that would be even more of the talk here in Dallas. You know, it’s funny as I was watching it, they cut to commercial before they do the final four. Yeah. and and right out of break what did this ESPN show but the Knicks from 198 the cold envelope draft like why would you do that to feed that and then of course you know it’s what happened so obviously if San Antonio had gotten the pick then it’s rigged again because they always seem to get the number one pick or Philly who you know everybody got hurt they should get it because look the teams that had a 15% chance which was the highest you could get Utah Charlotte and um you know somebody else who didn’t win Bob, you Utah was fifth. Yeah. Yeah. 30 seconds to go. Who’s going to win the NBA championship this year? The topsyturvy playoffs. I think Oklahoma City climbed out of their troubles and and that win Sunday got them that series. I think they take care of Minnesota and uh you know coming out. New York’s really tough. I just don’t know if they’re a long series that they can compete. But I think New York is who they play because I think both Boston and Cleveland are going down. Yeah, Tatum got hurt tonight and didn’t look good. That’s for sure. Brian Dearis, on again short notice, thanks for coming in and providing your valuable perspective on this big night for the Mavs. That’s right, Brian. Now, back to some Cowboys.

The Dallas Mavericks had just 1.8 percent odds of winning the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, but the ping-pong balls bounced their way. Mavs insider Brian Dameris talks about the historic win, presumptive first overall pick Cooper Flagg and what it all means for general manager Nico Harrison.