Jason Kidd Talks About Cooper Flagg, Mavs Playing With Size, NBA Finals | K&C Masterpiece

Jason Kidd Talks About Cooper Flagg, Mavs Playing With Size, NBA Finals | K&C Masterpiece

but right now we bring to you Dallas Maverick’s head coach Jason Kid good afternoon sir good afternoon how you guys doing we’re doing great how about yourself i have no complaints now okay excellent it’s a good Tuesday are you going Tuesday are you gonna have to tell Cooper Flag that you knocked Duke out of the tournament in 1993 is that an important discussion y’all have to have uh maybe at some point but that won’t be right off the bat okay uh but that that is something that um I know Grant Hill probably has already beat me too so u probably we’ll we’ll talk about that at some point but not right off the bat okay i like that and now now that the deadline has passed for players to withdraw their names from the upcoming NBA draft can you say Cooper flag by name or do we have to keep saying the kid from Duke i think let’s just play it safe and we’ll go with the kid from Duke okay all right yeah uh that being said the I just saw in bet online that the kid from Duke is minus 100,000 to one to be selected by the Mavericks uh will I win my $100 if I make that bet Jason Kid uh I would say yes okay all right all right um we’ll protect you from there on that Thank you thank you but but those that that’s uh interesting news on the odds uh but I again this is a talented draft uh you have some very talented young men um but uh the kid from Duke is uh is very exciting and uh has a promising uh future and so um we’ve been studying him a lot here and I think the important thing with that is there’s no way Corey has $100,000 so I wouldn’t even I I wouldn’t even uh worry about that now there’s some things that I’m really fascinated with this draft but also kind of going back through some of your career and how it translates into yourself as a coach can you kind of walk us through the advice that Dirk gave you when you asked him for shooting tips including and I still don’t totally understand this breathing through your eyes how does one do that uh that’s a great great question i think Durk is is and Hoger are the only ones that can explain that i still don’t understand it i told him that I was going to have to pass on breathing through the eyes and I can do the the the hand the ball coming off of the two fingers but the breathing through the eyes I’m still trying to figure that out um and so uh but it worked for Durk um and he’s one of the the best to ever do it uh but I thought the advice of being able to shoot uh he helped me uh extend my career and uh that led to you know helping to win a championship here in Dallas but uh when you talk about the draft it’s incredible um a journey experience is kind of a mo movie clip of uh when you’re little playing on I was going to say on the playground but for these young uh men they’ve uh grown up in the gym and so being able to play in the gym and and all the AAU games um and then hearing your name called by the commissioner when you talk about Adam being able to hear your name um and so it’s uh surreal your family’s excited uh family and friends but it’s just it just a a nice token of appreciation of all the hard work uh but now you got to get to work um because everyone’s going to be gunning for you as the number one pick or number two pick and so uh in my case I was the number two pick and so uh understanding that there’s a lot of work to be done and and trying to you know live out that dream of being uh at the highest level he still got picked ahead of Grant Hill though so don’t ever forget that the the um we were talking about Dirk for a second there and I I I’ve always liked this saying from Derp which was basketball is jazz and then when he kind of explained how all that worked it made sense when you watched it on the court how how the ball moved and how everybody was doing different things collectively to make something happen what is the Jason Kid analogy for for basketball wow that’s uh I don’t know if I can top Dirk’s Jazz i like that though i I think when you have all the moving pieces um you know I think it’s chess um when you when you look at being able to move uh the pieces um with the the ball the speed uh the cut um you don’t always have to have the ball um to be able to to be a part of uh the play um and so I I think when you look at I look at as chess can you move the pieces not just your own teammates but the uh the opponent and so uh that’s the way I look at it now believe it or not I also want to go back to something that you said about the playground i know you grew up idolizing Magic Johnson he was known as a very fierce competitor how important is it that players aren’t they’re not just skilled but they have maybe even that uber level of competitiveness along with them yeah I think it’s uh very important when you talk about the great uh the work ethic um being able to you know be a gym rat um the competitor in this being able to win uh wanting to win um and doing whatever it takes to win when you talk about magic uh he won at every level um enjoyed the game wanted to uh be the best and he put that time in and so when you look at uh these young men that are coming out um they’re very competitive uh they want to win they’ve won at every level and and so again um when you have that part of your culture uh it can just only help and hopefully lead to to winning championships do you think a common I guess trait of some of these players is the hate to lose more than you love to win and how important is it to appreciate the big time wins that you get well I think it’s uh very important that you know they they want to win um and so sometimes winning comes in different forms you’re not averaging you know 30 points a night maybe it’s 15 um but you’re doing more on the defensive end uh being able to guard or being able to help us rebound the ball and so I think uh when you look at um you know who’s really willing to sacrifice even the great players will sacrifice uh their stats to to win and so uh to have someone like this that the young man from Duke uh everyone has talked about you know his willingness to work but also to sacrifice and so um we’re really excited about that jason Kid joining us here on the KNC Masterpiece on 1053 through the fan i I was kind of a out on a an island by myself still arguing that bigs had a place in the NBA and that you could still use bigs in a way and you guys kind of flipped it back to having big bodies battling in there but you also still have high volume three-point shooting and I was kind of do you feel like you have something other teams don’t and you can force the opponents to kind of switch their game uh where they might be lack against the bigs that you guys have i think everyone’s going to start coming to visit your island uh when you when you talk about being on that island by yourself because you believe bigs have a opportunity in our league and I I truly believe that i agree with you i think our league uh our bigs we believe here with the Mavs we’re big um we can we can put out a big lineup u and also we can when I say small AD is still you know 6 10 7 ft so we’re not really small but I think just the ability you know to be able to um athletically have bigs who can guard smalls and uh when you look at some certain teams in this league when you look at Cleveland they’re big but they’re athletic and so um you can start to see uh teams are playing with two bigs um it gives you an advantage on on both ends how how do you how do you plan A plan B plan C when a couple of those bigs Derek Lively al although he’s significantly younger and Anthony Davis have run into some injury problems in their seasons h how do you plan accordingly for if and potentially when that happens well I think when you have uh the depth that we have um you know I thought uh that was displayed this past season um we we truly believe our depth was one of our uh advantages um we didn’t think that we were going to have so many injuries uh but that that’s part of the season uh injuries and so for that you know being able to slide the next guy up um you know being able to have Gaffford uh Marshall you know certain guys uh like that that can step in and start uh until we can get healthy and I I thought the group did an incredible job uh when you talk about our two-ways uh B will um Kesler those guys played extremely well for us and uh and helped us win games so I think when you talk about the injuries it is part of uh of our league um but there is no panic you know we we truly believe we’ve prepared the next guy to be able to start um for us and uh find a way to win from from my perspective Jason Kai has a serious voice and respect amongst his peers klay has a strong presence obviously pj AD you got a lot of strong veterans in this locker room can you describe your guys different leadership styles and how they are leaders in this group in this room yeah I think uh when you look at our leadership I think uh you look at Kai his ability u everyone looks up to him uh his talent we all know is at at the highest level and so just understanding uh his voice in that locker room and and during the game is always heard uh and there’s always trusted um you look at Clay uh he’s won uh multiple championships uh he’s played with great players um and his leadership uh is effective uh being steady uh no matter who is out of the lineup he truly believes that we have a chance to win and he really speaks that in that locker room and so uh it’s much needed as a coach but also as teammates when you have someone like Clay speaking you trust uh that his words are gold and that it’s going to help us uh you know find a way to win and then AD has also won championships this locker room is full of championships and so understanding what it takes to win and so AD again uh coming on board being able to uh talk to younger players uh about what it takes and and staying together and and having fun and and so um you you look at the locker room uh we we have that advantage of what it takes uh again being healthy is something that’s key uh and then being able to uh play at the highest level at the right time and that a lot of times is April May and June uh as you can see uh you got Oklahoma City and Indiana the two teams that are playing great right now and uh it’s exciting do you ever hear a debate in the locker room about whose championship team was better like and do you ever jump in and you’re like man that 11 team Dirk went on a rampage i don’t know like do you ever get that debate going no you know that’s a good point maybe that’s what we should do talk about uh next season is uh who had the best run uh Kai could probably say Cleveland uh Clay’s gonna say he he he might get confused and go I don’t know which one was the best so that that’s why sometimes it’s not you don’t want to like start something unless you know you can win and Clay has the advantage so uh just understanding he he could definitely silence a lot of us but I think it it comes down to uh being able to talk about the different runs and uh everybody has a different point of view uh the one here in 11 was incredible uh Durk carried us uh the role players as he calls us burgers uh did did our part uh and uh we found a way to to help him win a championship somebody who I don’t think a lot of people even thought could be even a role player at the beginning of the season brandon Williams you mentioned him just a second ago what kind of development did you see from him this season and then what are the potential opportunities for him especially maybe in the next few months of the upcoming season or the first few months yeah yeah i think when you look at uh B will development uh his trust in the in the Dallas Mavs of understanding being patient um a lot of times uh we we use that word a lot here for our younger players is to be patient but be ready and uh he showed that uh this past season uh in coming in and helping us uh win he gave us something that we didn’t have and that was speed um with the ball being able to you know transition get the ball down and score and also find open teammates and so again his work ethic is like no other he’s in the gym today working uh loves to be in the gym um and we’re very excited about what his future is extremely bright with us going forward and yes with Kai being out he’s someone that we’re going to lean on uh to help us until Kai gets back when when Jason Kidd brought the ball up the court uh what was he looking for like let’s say the the ball’s out of out of the net and you’re bringing it up the court what are you what were you looking for back then and do you kind of have that same expectation for your ball handler on this team yeah I think for me it was about how how can we score the fastest and the easiest keep the game simple um the throw ahead uh being able to uh find a teammate that was open and I knew that you know could you know score uh with ease um and so when we talk about that here we talk about the throw ahead using the pass as uh so we can play faster uh the trust of the throw ahead um and sometimes that throw ahead could get intercepted and that happens uh we’ve all turned the ball over um but I think it’s about you know keeping the game simple easy and uh effective and uh the group that we have uh as we go forward here is is going to be able to throw the ball ahead we are bigger and so some of our bigs are going to have to bring that um you know we look at PJ this summer working on his ball handling and being able to get us in the offense max Christie is another one that’s going to you know work on this summer being able to get us organized uh as the guard uh you know point guard again his effectiveness of being able to score and shoot it uh but also can can we get him uh to improve and and getting us in the offense and uh that will lead to more minutes for him too and and I know the ability to have a quick paced offense is obvious obviously important but every now and again you have to tell the point guard to be able to slow down too right like if if you’re going to balance it out don’t you yeah well we don’t always want to leave our bigs so uh as as we learn about as smalls uh you know we we need our bigs defensively and so and offensively but uh if we get beat on the defensive end our bigs cover us up and and help us at the rim and so sometimes there’s a balance of being able to play fast but also being able to uh wait for our bigs play in the post or play in the pick and roll early and uh being able to get them touches now Cory was just saying when the ball goes in the basket and you move were you ever surprised it took people who invented basketball so long to figure out to cut a hole in the basket some say it took a few years others think it took a decade how How do you not see if we put a hole in it we don’t have to climb up the ladder every time well I’m just happy that they figured that out uh because I think it would took uh the game of basketball a long time for guys to climb up and uh take the ball out of the peach basket yeah there weren’t prolific shooters like Clay back then either so had some work to do at that point yeah uh and last thing before I let you go we’ve we’ve been pretty interested in Sean Sweeny’s story and I think I just saw he’s the out of the running with Phoenix what kind of impact has he had on the philosophy of what your bunch does yeah I think uh Sweeny’s been great uh I’ve been with Sweeney uh in multiple places when we first started in Brooklyn uh and then also uh in Milwaukee now here in Dallas and so uh just to trust to understand what we’re looking for defensively uh for him to be able to uh you know take that and uh and run with it and he’s done an incredible job uh defensively for us uh when I say this uh everyone thinks that he’s just a defensive coach but also he understands uh the offensive end too and so uh he’s one of uh he’s been uh one of the guys I’ve trusted uh he’s done an incredible job here in Dallas um it’s I think Phoenix has lost but we’re happy that he’s back with us uh and I think he’ll be a head coach in this league someday well thank you very much for the time we’re excited about the upcoming season obviously we’re all excited about the kid from Duke and we appreciate your time good sir i I can’t wait so we can change that kid to Duke to his name but no we’re really excited about this opportunity thanks a lot guys [Music]

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd joined the K&C Masterpiece to talk about “that kid from Duke”, aka future Mavs #1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, as well as why he’s excited for the team to keep playing with size even without Luka Doncic as a facilitator, who he’s got winning the 2025 NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Pacers, and more!

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