GET UP | Chris Canty reacts to Mavericks win 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, right to select Cooper Flagg

GET UP | Chris Canty reacts to Mavericks win 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, right to select Cooper Flagg

on ESPN radio. ESPN 2. The Sketchers performance of the week is brought to you by Handsfree Sketcher Slipins. No bending down, no touching your shoes, just step in and go with Hands-Free Sketcher Slipins. I think the performance of the week goes to Nico Harrison, Mavs general manager who gets the number one pick in the draft last night. He didn’t have anything to do with it. Yeah, he did nothing. Well, he put together a bad team. He put together a bad team that got in the lottery. Are we sure he had nothing to do with it? I’m not totally sure. Okay. All right. Okay. 1.8% chance. Well, what are you saying? Frozen envelope situation. It just taking it back to 85 worked out really well for Dallas, did it not? I’m not saying it. So, you have to say if you believe it, then say it. Actually fits a lot better alongside Anthony Davis. I’m just say I’m just just putting it out there. Like you you got Cooper flag with AD. You like Cooper flag with AD versus Cooper flag with Luca. just just just I don’t know. I don’t just Well, they wouldn’t have been in the It’s interesting because they wouldn’t have been in the lottery. Are we sure? Luca was dealing with injuries throughout the entirety of the regular season like up until he got traded. So, I don’t I don’t know. I can’t assign the Mavs being in a different situation materially than what they ended up in. It’s just so funny how it’s Dallas. How lucky is one Nico Harrison? And Chen was right. Wellness check for Mavs fans. Has any fan base been on more of an extreme roller coaster over the past couple months than those fine people in the state of Texas? My gosh, your franchise player who’s in his basketball prime and took it to the finals a year ago gets traded in the cloak of darkness on a Saturday night to the Lakers, no less. Then you suffer all these injuries. You’re saying that you want Nico fired. You’re carrying coffins up the steps outside of the arena. You’re crying with Luca in his return to Dallas. Then you get in this situation where you don’t know what the future’s going to look like. You’re praying on Nico’s downfall. You feel like the franchise completely betrayed you. But now you’re back in again. Just when you were out, they pull you back in because the Mavericks shockingly have the first pick there. And who is sitting there but Cooper Flag? So what’s funnier? What’s more Nico Harrison previous reputation to last night? If he trades the pick or he doesn’t take Cooper flag. Oh no. There’s no shot. There’s no shot that he’s trading that pick. And there’s no shot that he’s I’m saying which is funnier. Neither is going to happen. Which would be funnier, not taking Cooper Flag or trading the pick? Trading the pick. Cuz you would be talking about trading Luca Donic and trading Cooper Flag in less than a calendar year. That would be nuts. That would be insane. What a resume. Not for that reason is why it won’t happen. I mean, Rick Welsh, the CEO of the Dallas Marriage, they got to be printing up number 32 jerseys. Cooper flag. They got to be printing them up right now. No doubt. So, we did the exercise where we talked about the franchises that needed this pick and needed a Cooper flag the most. And Dallas was thrown in the mix. We were talking more about a Charlotte, etc. Dallas was thrown in the mix, but we didn’t really drill down on that because we thought it was such an unlikelyhood that they would end up with this pick, so we didn’t really talk about it. But now that the Cards have fallen where they have, is there any franchise that needed this more than the Dallas Mavericks? When you really think about it, they had a fan base that was revoling against them. They had a fan base that felt like they were the enemy, that the actual organization was the enemy. And all of a sudden, you have this young Americanborn superstar that you have the opportunity to pick. You know who’s going to put butts in seats and bring people back to loving this franchise? It’s Cooper Flag. Well, you asked the question, is there a franchise that needed it more? Hell yeah, there is. The Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards, the Charlotte Hornets, but from an optic standpoint, they need hostages cuz they don’t get volunteers. Yeah. Listen, Charlotte definitely they’re not free agent destinations. I got you. And remember with Dallas, a healthy Dallas is what Nico thought could win a championship. So they don’t look so in quote unquote needing him if they 100% healthy Kyrie Klay Thompson PJ Washington Anthony Davis and Gaffford/ Lively is the intended team and I got Naji Marshall coming off the bench like that was the intended team so they didn’t need him as much as some of these other teams they got him from an optic standpoint though I still don’t know that because this is what’s interesting if you build it they will come right so every Mavericks fan the Field of the Dreams reference every Mavericks fan hates their own organization but doesn’t hate the team. Now, there’s a difference there. They don’t like the people running it from governorship ownership to the general manager, but that’s not Anthony Davis’s fault. That’s not Klay Thompson’s fault. So, they could put together a team next year that’s really good and they go back to the games. Now, they don’t actually have to put a good team together and they’re going to go back to the games. Well, I’m just sitting here thinking about it like the bar to clear the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West, right? So, we think. So, we think. So, we think. Well, is it your squad? Minnesota may be that. Okay. So, it might be Minnesota. same problem when it comes to the front court size, right? Well, not anymore if you’re the Dallas Mavericks cuz you got a line starting lineup with Cooper flag at small forward, Anthony Davis at your forward, and Derek Lively/ Daniel Gaffford at the five. And may I add something? PJ Washington now is not an expendable player, but he becomes expendable on that team. Yeah. To get another wing player. Yes. Or a point guard. You need a point guard. You need a point guard. Yeah. and he can get he’s good enough to get you that he’s not getting you a he’s not getting you John Morant but they now somehow have excess when they had a shortage now they have an excess overnight also think about the win for the NBA we talked a lot about gosh he’s going to go to one of these franchises and likely waste away for a few years because the talent around him is not going to be good enough maybe he’ll do his time with XYZ franchise and and then move on and then we’ll get to see him really play competitive basketball and maybe even be a champion. We talked about that flow because these number one overall picks often times don’t win with the team that they’re drafted by. Think about the NBA saying, “Oh, wow. He could go to Dallas.” But but I mean retroactively, we’re going to look back at this thing and this is going to be included in the prism of the Luca Dantic trade. As a Lakers fan sitting here today, it’s hard not to feel like the Dallas Mavericks are closer to winning a championship. It’s hard not to feel that way. Now, I get it. The runway is going to be a little bit longer, but at least they have hope over the next three or four years with the window that they’ve been able to put together with Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis as their centerpieces that they are going to have a chance to make a run at this. Like with the Lakers going out of the whimper this year in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves, I I don’t know that they’re going to be any closer next year, LeBron James a year older. I I I don’t know. So, yeah, sitting here today, there should be more optimism around the Dallas Mavericks who are landing a generational talent like Cooper Flag. Somebody that has the talent to not only be the face of that franchise, but somebody that could one day be the face of the entire NBA. I need to know word for word. I need to know word for word the prayer or spell that Nico Harrison spoke out loud and spoke this into existence. How did he pull this off? He is somehow blessed and a highly favored after being the number one villain in the NBA. I cannot believe that Nico Harrison found himself in this position. You You know what I love about this? What I absolutely love about this, the teams that set out to tank this year, Utah, Washington, Charlotte, didn’t get rewarded. This is now the second team in the last two drafts. Yeah, 10 and 11 to to win the draft lottery that started out outside of the top nine. Like the Atlanta Falcons last year won the lottery. They had the 10th best odds. The Atlanta Hawks, excuse me, Atlanta Hawks, Falcons, Atlanta Hawks started out, they had the 10th best odds. They won the lottery. Dallas Mavericks had the 11th best odds they won the lottery. Like the NBA set out a couple of years ago to flatten the odds when it came to winning the draft lottery. They’ve done that now. And this is taking away the incentive of teams that are going through the organizational tank. And I say this all the time, players don’t tank, but organizations do tank. teams are going to have to start thinking twice about setting out to tank a season. When you decide you’re going to trade away a player that is an asset now all of a sudden it’s not just about getting draft picks in return. It’s about trying to get viable players that fit the timeline that you’re trying to build in order to get a playoff contender. I think this is a win for the NBA as a whole. If you’re Adam Silver, you’re sitting here looking at it today and telling teams, “This is why you don’t want a tank.” Because you could end up with a situation like the Hornets who are picking fourth and they should have been third. Like the Washington Wizards who were picking fifth, no, who were picking six, they should have been second. Or the Utah Jazz who were picking fifth, it should have been first. Like th this is exactly what the NBA was trying to accomplish. Now, it’s not perfect, but I do think it’s an example of, you know, teams that are trying to tank not getting rewarded, not having the carrot out there with getting a generational talent cuz they’re doing it wrong. I’m glad you said what you said cuz you’re right about it. And I’m glad I don’t want this to come off too nasty. I’m glad they’re being penalized and not getting the picks because they’re doing it incorrectly. And and it all goes back to the culture of winning versus the culture of losing. You can lose games with a culture of winning. I’m going to explain what I mean by that because I know that may come off as confusing. I think these teams like Washington, like Utah, Charlotte is in the middle ground because they they had a lot of injuries and they have good young players. I actually like some of those young players. Charles Lee has those guys playing hard. Yeah. So, I think they’re maybe in that middle ground, but the other teams you’re talking about, you’re a thousand% right. And they’re Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Come on now. That’s Give me No mango. No mat.

GET UP | Chris Canty reacts to Mavericks win 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, right to select Cooper Flagg
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