The Mavs SOLVED Ball Handler Issue With Dante Exum, Cooper Flagg, & D’Angelo Russell, is it Enough?

The Mavs SOLVED Ball Handler Issue With Dante Exum, Cooper Flagg, & D’Angelo Russell, is it Enough?

On today’s show, the Dallas Mavericks have solved their ball handler issue, but is it enough? We’ll talk about Dante XM and more big questions about the Dallas Mavericks on today’s Lot.
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And welcome. You are locked on to the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Hankstead, medium member covering the Dallas Mavericks for 10 years. Thanks for meeting every year, making locked on Mavs your first listen each and every day. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at monarchoney.com for 50% off your first year. Joining me as always, my co-host, media member, come 10 years right alongside me, X going to give it to you, Yoko, the one we’re thinking. What you got for me, Isaac Harris? You know what I love right now is Cooper Flag already getting in some community work in the DFW area, going to a basketball camp, getting some shots up, some blocks on some little kids. Uh I just think it’s cool, man. Number one overall pick. He’s already getting out there and uh going to some camps, getting some content in for all of us to soak in. So uh shout out to Cooper, but I’m honestly more than Cooper. I’m just worried right now. All I think about is the recovery of Slightly Biased
from the great Slightly Bias YouTube channel. What you got for me, Slightly Biased? I’m chugging along. Three more weeks in the cast, we’ll be on our way. He’s He’s coming along. He’s coming along.
Do you have any more signatures? Yeah, I put some on.
Okay. You got to donate on my stream to be in the rap. Wow. To to sign it. Yeah. I’m not playing around. Hey, I’m just sitting I’m sitting at home all I’m supposed to be in Europe right now, so I’m getting something out of it.
Coming home with something. I’m staying home with something.
Honestly, that’s kind of cool. Like, hey, you like donate on the stream and you get your name on the cast.
Yeah. And a message.
Wow. How about How about that? It’s a master class right there. Today’s episode, we’re going to get into Dante Exam signing with the Mavericks. Mavericks have now like solved, I guess, their ball handler issue, but is is it enough? We’re going to answer that question. talk about Cooper Flags roll early. We’ll also talk about the coaching staff, some turnover, some really good additions being rumored for the Mavericks right now. But let’s start here. The Mavs signed Dante XM bringing him back on a one-year deal. And yes, that means the Dallas Mavericks have 16 players on the roster right now. They have to do something at some point, but like Mark Stein pointed out and reminded all of us, during the offseason, teams can have 21 players on their roster. And so until they need to make a decision on that, they can keep all these guys, but someone eventually will have to be gone. We think it’s going to be an Omax Prosper salary dump. We think it could be a Jaden Hardy salary dump or something like that. We don’t think it’s going to be a big trade. I guess it could be too. It could be a two for one trade or something like that. But Dante XM coming back. The Mavs ball handler problem solved, Isaac. Well, I mean, I think what you’re going for whenever you lose a guy like Kyrie for the first half of the season then and you’re not going to commit to trading a draft pick or a Daniel Gaffford or somebody for like a Kobe White or whatever. I think the best route at that point is to go to bullpin. approach and try to get some guys in there that can do that have different strengths that can do different things. And that’s why I love the Dante Exom signing because it’s like, you know, he’s a safe option. You can throw him out there, he can run the offense, he can keep the ball movement moving. Um he’s bigger, he can play some defense. And then you have DLO that can, you know, he’s crafty. He can get buckets. If you need a night to where, hey, Cooper’s in his rookie season and, you know, AD’s maybe out, you know, taking a rest day or something like that, you’re like, dang, in order for us to win this game, we need DLO to put up like 30 in this game. He has the capabilities to do that. And then you have like a little spark plug in Brandon Williams that finished the season really strong. So, I just like the combination of those three. And for when you add up those three guys’ salaries and for how cheap it is, I think it’s a pretty good job from Dallas’s front office to uh put these three guys together.
Yeah, I mean Exom was like the type of player they needed to sort of round it out. Uh you know, like once you got DLO, I thought any of your other guard options that were just like your co-anonies of the world were pretty much off the table. You had you had to get someone who could defend at a decent enough level. Exom gets you that while also giving you somebody who can get you into your offense and is familiar with some of these guys already and you know it feels good cuz the reports where XM had two teams that two contending teams were after him as well. There was a lot of reports that you know uh
the Lakers
I don’t Were the Lakers one of them?
I I saw a report by the Lakers and XM get off.
And then uh they did
get out of here. And um you know European teams are all over him too. So uh it’s good to have Exom back. Yeah, I’m I’m good with it.
What if they don’t make a roster space? Are they just going to be like, “Hey, I’m sorry, man. We just couldn’t get one.”
Or what what’s the NBA really going to do? What if the Mavs do walk in with 16 players? Like what would they do? Like Who enforces the CBA at that level? You know, you know what I mean? Like, what if they break rules?
Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, you guys didn’t get the memo. We We made a move today. Must not went through.
Like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We we count 15. Um, yeah. At what point would it get physical if a team just like doesn’t follow one of the CBA rules and like bring 16 players in? Like, does someone go in there and physically remove them or like how long could it last?
You just can’t play a game. No, I mean it’s probably going to be Max.
Stop them. From playing the game.
Yeah. I mean, they just won’t tip off.
Just saying. It’s all breaking down for me. It’s like the NBA’s the house of cards. Um, you know, I think in order for you to dump Jaden Hardy, um, I think everybody knows what he is now. So, uh, you know, and he has years left on his deal at like $6 million. So, doesn’t sound like a ton, but you probably have to attach something small to dump him. I don’t know. I I I still feel like Omax is young enough and cheap enough to where if you did, you know, look out at some other teams and they could, you know, say like, “Oh, all right. We’ll we’ll take at $3 million or whatever.” But they’re going to have to do that not just for the roster sake, but to get under back under the Second Apron and stuff, too. So, expect it at some point. It’ll it’ll happen and I’ll get over it.
Yeah, it has to be a trade cuz they can’t just cut someone. It has to be off the salary. So,
yeah. Well, they they could wave and stretch somebody enough if it was a big enough contract, right? I mean, we could do Dwight.
We just saw a $54 million deal get waved and stretched to Damen Lillard. I wonder if that’s the future of the league right there.
Just they don’t do an amnesty clause. They just everybody waves and stretches guys they don’t want anymore and there’s just dead money all over the league. Yeah,
I don’t even know if we have a future league. OKC better watch out with the Aton and Luca pairing. It’s the number one and number one pick from
No, we got to say we got to save Lakers talk. We’ll get to
mimic They should mimic the real economy and make it to where you could trade for other teams debts like dead money. Can bet on it. Bet against it. I’m going to put a lean. I’ll take your $22 million. Can I put a lean on the 2026 Pelicans pick that’s going that’s going to the Hawks? Can I do that? I think with D’Angelo Russell, Dante Exom, Brandon Williams, like you said, add Cooper Flag in there, who Jason Kid said is going to be a ball handler. Naji Marshall who’s going to handle the ball some, I think they at least have enough to handle the ball. I don’t feel good about that being the ball handlers going into a playoff series. Even if you add Kyrie to that group, I don’t think that’s enough. But I think during a regular season, I think they did enough. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it depends on how good Flag is though because if if Flag comes in as a top 50 player out the gate, I think that changes this dynamic quite a bit. But yeah, I mean the the DLO thing the people been like, “Yeah, in the playoffs like if DLO is starting for you in the playoffs, something’s gone horribly wrong.”
Yeah. No.
Yeah. Yeah. No,
that’s not the plan. But DLO as a six-man and that can be a spark plug guy that can win you a playoff game like a Tim Hardaway did back in P and play like a Tim Hardaway role like sure that sign me up in that like bench type role that Tim played.
Yeah, I’m all in on DL four and a half million or whatever it is.
Especially Especially at the money and they got ice in your veins now. place in my veins.
Especially since what the role they’ll be they’ll be asking him to do at least for the beginning of the season is only going to last the beginning of the season. And if they have to if Kyrie doesn’t come back right, you know what I mean? Then the season wasn’t going to end well for you anyway. That’s what you’re making that’s what you’re making the bet on. Uh does this push Brandon Williams this ex a move. Does this push Brandon Williams farther down? Like we were I was thinking he was going to start a couple weeks ago and now I’m like I think he’s the third string point guard at this point. I mean, I don’t know what I don’t know. I didn’t really have much expectations for him entering the season, but uh we’ll see. I mean, we we did this whole song and dance last year with the guards, and they all ended up playing huge minutes. It just kind of varied. Like, kid will kid will ride the hot hand. Kid will have guys at the end of the bench that don’t play for two weeks and then they’re getting 30 minutes a game for the next three weeks. No. Yeah, I think he’s the third. And yeah, I think DLO starts and Exom is your is your main guy off the bench. But I but I think it just kind of depends on the game and stuff too. Um that you know the DLO I mean um XM I think DLO’s locked into kind of his spot early on. It’s the XM Brandon Williams type um coming off the bench. I think it’d kind of be matchup dependent. The Mavs have solved their ball handler to a degree. their ball handler issue to a degree and I think that they’ve got a a good rotation there until Kyrie comes back and it’ll just depend on what Kyrie comes back to see what what it all looks like and how they all put it together. Coming up, let’s talk about the coaching staff. The Mavs were hemorrhaging coaches. Now they’re bringing in and are rumored to get some really good assistant coaches. Are they fixing that? Let’s talk about that and more coming up. Today’s episode of Locked Time Apps brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? that it was there’s just too many things. There’s too much all around happening all the time. Too many transactions. Too many different places that your money is or investments are or student loans or savings accounts or credit cards or all that kind of stuff. Monarch Money can help you. It makes it easier. Puts you in the driver’s seat. Puts you in control. It’s like having your own personal CFO. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track accounts, investments, spending all in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth at the same time. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use that code locked on NBA at monarch money for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. The code is locked on NBA. That’s all one word, lockedNBA. Get half off your first 50% off the entire year at monarchmoney.com. Shut it down.
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There’s all kinds of other good things via the bank account. That’s the only way you can do it. We’re asking big questions about the Dallas Mavericks. You talked about Dante Exom. Let’s talk about the coaching staff because there were Mazo already lost Sean Sweeney the lead assistant to now become the assistant to the you know
the lead assistant in San Antonio.
He’s he’s the elite assistant now he’s the assistant to the coach in San Antonio. The Mavs are rumored to be losing Jared Dudley to the Denver Nuggets. They have already lost God Shamgod to the Orlando Magic and our old friend uh Jamal Mosley. But the Mavs have just now recently, according to Mark Stein, been connected to Phil Handy, who was the coach of the Lakers and some others, you know, assistant coach with Jason Kidd for that 2020 uh, you know, title that they won. Also, Mike Penorthy, who was on that same staff as an assistant, they’re connected there. And then the Mavs have brought in officially Frank Vogle, who was an a consultant for the Mavericks for the last couple of years and was just kind of hanging around. He was just like at things. He was didn’t have an official role, but now he’s coming in as an assistant coach. Are you more worried or less worried seeing all that now come to fruition for the Maverick’s coaching staff? Um, well, I I’ve I’ve shared my opinion on this before. I the assistant coach stuff, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. I don’t like to even really get into this because I don’t know like if you were to tell me this is unprecedented like Isaac, I saw your tweet where it was just like this type of movement for your assistant coaches is kind of, you know,
I meant overall in the organization.
Right. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. But I’ve seen I’ve seen other people say, you know, how the assistant coach carousel’s kind of been unprecedented. You know, I don’t know that. I I don’t I’m not a historian on assistant coach coaching moves. So, if you’re to tell me that, okay, I believe you. You know, I’m looking at this situation and I see a lot of people doom and glooming over it. And I’m just like to me, this is just means you put together a hell of a a coaching staff is what this shows me cuz you’ve had teams across the league and every single one of these guys, it hasn’t been just one team in the reports, it’s been multiple teams going after him to try and poach him away. Um, I mean, I I I don’t know. Is it, you know, do I think there’s probably some rot in the center of the core here for the Mavs? Yeah. Do I think this is like a symptom of it? No, not really. I just think some of these guys got upgrades. And I mean, you look at the guys they’re bringing in. Vogle, there’s a lot of talk about u uh
Phil Handy.
Phil Handy coming in, which is like that’s a very wellrespected development coach across the league. And I I’m very excited about that with Cooper Flag being here. Um, and you’re talking about a guy who’s there with LeBron, Kauaii, like you know that very well respected across the league. So, he’s close with Kyrie.
He’s close with Kyrie. Close with LeBron. I’m just saying there’s some signals that are really starting to start I’m really starting to perk up here a little tiny bit.
Get away.
It’s just getting a little
My favorite thing is anybody suggesting LeBron to the Mavs in front of Isaac. That’s
Well, I’ve never done the trade thing, but then people are like, “What if he’s just gets a buyout?” And I’m now I’m like, well, buyouts are just happening every other day in the league now.
There’s 20 Yeah. 28 other teams that are ready for him.
I think it’d be Mavericks for sure.
No, buyout. You don’t think so?
Go to Golden State. He’s just speaking it into existence that it won’t be. I don’t He’s not thinking through it logically. He just doesn’t like LeBron. So,
I can think through it logically. We can have the conversation. I don’t think it’s a good fit. I don’t think it’s a good decision. I don’t think any of it’s good. Why would it be about if he if he got bought out
for free? No, I don’t want the media circus of LeBron and Cooper Flags rookie season.
What is he Okay, tell me. Okay, let’s just do it now. What What is he bringing to you basketball right right basketball-wise right now that would be worth it with the supporting guest? And don’t drop the it’s LeBron. He’s He’s still 40. All right, or 41. Like, you can’t drop it like he’s like prime LeBron. So what how does it how does it fix things right now?
Well, let’s start with 41 years old goated number in this franchise. So
just numerology wise it just really but I mean he’s still a top 15 player in the league. I mean
well he he would come in and be the best pick and roll ball handler on the team.
So he’s going to run your point guard sometimes offensively. Yeah, that would be a big
Okay, so no DL.
We just went through a whole segment. We just went through a whole segment where we’re like D’Angelo Russell, Dante Axel, Brandon Williams going to handle the ball. And then we were like, okay, well maybe it could be LeBron James. Like that’s a great
That’s great. Who’s he going to guard? He doesn’t play defense.
Who is D’Angelo Russell going to guard right now?
Yeah, I will say Broadway was pretty good on defense last year for sure.
For the last two weeks of the season.
That’s all they need him for. Stop. Come on.
Just two weeks. Just give me two weeks, bro. We We keep We keep gassing up Cooper flag and Anthony Davis and Lively as like this incredible and and PJ Washington. You You honestly want to do that to Cooper’s rookie season? Is it going to make them better?
You would you would sign it up for it? I don’t know if it like
if it’s free. You think that would be a negative for Flag? Oh yeah. Yeah.
You don’t think there’s any positive?
Look what we just did. Like everything is about Cooper Flag right now in this whole thing. And now like LeBron shatters all of that. Like there’s there’s it’s not about rookie. Like it’s not about Cooper Flag at all. Then
does Cooper Flag come off as a guy that like would be really upset if the media stopped paying a lot of attention to him right now? You know, like a Cooper Flag just being like, “Oh my god, I’m playing with LeBron.” Like, this is so cool.
He gets to learn how to be a vet from from LeBron, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and Kyrie.
Okay, sure. I I just don’t think it’s a good basketball. I don’t think any of it’s good. like I I just think it’s easy for people to drop the like it’s LeBron of course it would work and fit and it’s like no just think through it for like five minutes and and ask yourself like what honestly how who would start like LeBron has to start you going to tell Cooper he’s going to come off the bench
start the all 6ix9ine and above team the LeBron Cooper PJ
Anthony Davis Derrick Lively LeBron is so big to bring him in at this point of his career to ring chase case in Cooper’s rookie season and all the stuff. I just think that’s just messy. Like like it’s just it’s too much stuff, man. Like
I I just think that that’s not a good enough reason to not take LeBron on like a minimum.
So
I think it’s a great reason.
I see what you’re saying and I do get where you’re coming from. I would do it. And I’ll tell you right now, if it if it the 1% chance he were to get bought out or something and if he made a messy, I guarantee you the first report we’ll hear, Nico Harrison’s on his way to LA for a sit down meeting or something. It’ll be one of the first things we hear. I just don’t think he’s good enough at this point in his career to warrant all of the circus. I just don’t. Sorry. That’s fair. So, Phil Handy coming in. Well, we got to we got to LeBron because of Phil Handy.
Yeah. Right. I just think that it was not a position of strength and it did not look good on the franchise for you to lose head co lose assistant coaches to like lateral or just semi
upgrades in other spots to San Antonio to Denver to Orlando. It’s like okay. And then to hear, you know, the stories that didn’t seem like the Mavs really fought hard to keep Sean Sweeney. All right. Oh, that’s not really a good look either that you’re taking care of your own guys that that has been there and has run offense defense for you in different times is getting all these interviews all over the place and you want to develop into a head coach one day. But now to bring in basically the Lakers 2020 staff, Frank Vogle, Phil Handy, uh Penorthy, they also have Jriano. He was not on that Lakers staff, but they brought in J. Well, yeah, obviously Jason Kid was on that staff too. But I I think that this could honestly in the aggregate be an upgrade. It’s almost I’m slightly a little bit where I’m like I don’t know like who knows how how much of an upgrade it could be or if it’s a downgrade but it does seem like it could be because those guys are well regarded. I think it could be. Yeah. Um I’m more concerned about the overall when you have this much turnover and change. There’s just like you just can’t ignore that from top to bottom like ownership. I mean we’ve went through it so many times. ownership and GM and so many people behind the scenes and so many I mean and yes I’ll admit some of it is the fact that there’s like some personal relationships attached that um that doesn’t have some great feelings on on a lot of the stuff but it’s just like yeah yeah I think it they are very well respected around the league like Dudley Shame God and all this stuff but like you can’t convince me like all of this is like a coincidence and you can’t convince me right now that it’s all good too that they’re going to be replaced or like hey all these new guys are going to be better I love Frank Vogle I think he’s going to be great Phil Handy relationships that was the whole reason Nico Harrison was hired not for his background or experience he had none it was because of rel relationships around the league and that’s where it’s like there’s a lot of relationships you are losing with Dudley and Sham God that like those two guys meant a lot in that locker room and had a lot of relationships around the league especially a Jared Dudley type he’s going to be an NBA head coach someday and Sham God I mean every player loves him has all the relationships and stuff too. So it’s not for me it’s not as much about like the X’s and O’s cuz to you know slightly it’s like it’s hard to like really understand like who’s better at X’s and O’s and like schemes and all this stuff. It’s for me it’s about the relationship part and when you lose so many people and turnover happens so much really in any like sports organization a company like you go across the board it’s typically not a good thing when you have so much turnover and people are are leaving and in and so much change in a short amount of time but I mean time will tell if it all like works out that way.
Yeah. Yeah. Well we we’ll have to see. I think too I I wonder if you know they they’ve wanted Vogle for well over a year
and I wonder if they finally kind of thought all right we can get Vogle and maybe this is an opportunity with some of these guys getting requests elsewhere if I’m kid this is just like let me let me flesh out my staff and if it just means a completely new staff then so be it maybe this is the perfect time to do it because Sweeny’s probably going to go Dudley might get an upgrade like maybe this is the time to achieve that But I get I I agree with what you’re saying though. There’s just a lot of turnover. And yeah, if if I’m like interviewing for a job and I find out that, you know, this whole department has changed a million times in the last couple years, I’m probably going to look a little sideways at it. It’s
like where what’s the stability even to like a Cooper flag right now? Him coming in. It’s like who’s been here past five years?
Yeah. Like did he meet God Sham God and and Dudley already and like start that up and now all of a sudden it’s switching over, right? like that doesn’t that’s not really
it does the Dudley one I kind of understand because he is moving up to the lead assistant role in Denver if he takes that Sweeney even job sham God to my knowledge an even type of job so the Dudley one was hard you know when they’re hiring Triano obviously bringing Vogle and stuff they’re kind of punting on the um movement up for a Jared Dudley and he’s looking to Denver who’s going to do that with a rookie head coach So hats off to him. He he will be a loss relationally. Coming up, let’s get into what Cooper Flag’s role ear is going to be early with the Mavericks. Has it changed at all now that we’ve done free for agency? We’ve seen some of these other teams. Talk about that and more coming up. Lockown maps. We go daily every single day. Hard in the paint over here. Emergency pod. No, we just pod every day. That’s That’s what we That’s what we do over here. slightly going live on his stream every day doing doing great stuff on on slightly biased.
Been live for like six hours a day. I’m just I’m doing nothing. I’m just sitting here doing nothing. Did you play Wordle today? No, I didn’t get to Wordle. Every time you you pop a pain pill, you just go live.
No, I’ve I’ve been weaning off of them, but it’s been hurting these past couple days. I went in last week and she shoot my orthopedic PA. She was like, “Do you want to like uh refill your pain pills?” I was like, “No, I’m I don’t want them anymore.” She’s like, “Really?” I was like, “Yeah.” She’s like, “Okay.” 2 days later, I’m on the phone. Hey, so is it cool if you refill those? I go pick them up. Having a hard time sleeping. The Mavs roster is pretty set now. It they have to make one more move. That’s probably going to be a dump. I don’t think we expect another trade coming. I think it would have already happened at at this point. Has Cooper Flags role changed at all from the time that the Mavs won the lottery to now? Have you Is there Have you guys changed your opinion on what Cooper Flag’s role is going is going to be on this team? No. I I mean, I thought since he came in he’s going to be just a basketball player. I mean, it’s a copout thing to say, but that is the most exciting thing about him to me is just this guy really when you watch him and it’s just I want people to you can find full games on YouTube and stuff. People are not exaggerating. He does every single thing on the basketball floor. And credit to Duke. I mean, like I know there’s people who don’t like Dukes. I don’t watch college basketball enough to get in the weeds on
one of those sitting next to you.
Yeah. There’s people who question Duke’s coaching and and stuff, but like you know, credit to them. They use Cooper Flag in so many different ways this year and he excelled in pretty much all of them. So, I’m excited to see him in any role really. And I think, you know, I don’t think DLO coming in necessarily changes what his outlook was one way or the other.
Yeah, I feel the same way. And, you know, I, you know, I said the other day that Jason Kids point guard comments about Cooper flag, I think it’s more directed towards summer league uh than the regular season. I don’t think um I don’t think we’re going to get like a 50/50 split of point guard duties between DLO and Cooper Flag. Could be wrong. Uh but I just I don’t think that’s the case. But speaking of summer league, little breaking news here. The Lakers have announced their summer league roster. Um, we have the great Darius Basisley. That’s going to be
Wow.
going up against uh Cooper game one.
Vegas. Is that your boy RJ Davis on there?
RJ Davis, baby, in a Lakers jersey. That sucks. Uh he he is like the all-time Tar Hill now because he played there like 10 years. Um yeah, obviously Dalton Connect’s playing. Some of these other guys their font they use on this graphic. Somebody should be um Yeah, but of course Bronny’s on there number nine.
Bronny. I was like, you’re missing a name. Bronnie is going to is going to play. And that that Bronnie versus Cooper Flag game. Isaac will probably be there in person.
Bronny. I’m I’m just I’m so excited to watch Bronny. I hope LeBron walks into the room. That’d be just the best. I would just laugh.
He probably their their starting center Trey Jameson is also playing on this team right now. As of I guess Aiden is now their starting center, but for a minute there it was it was Trey Jameson. Don’t disrespect DeAndre Aiden like that.
Oh, he’s dominating in the paint for sure. The one thing that the one thing that changed for me was that Jason Kid comment about how he wants to use him like he used like he used Giannis and he really like very emp like he emphasized that a lot. He had the the quote about him wanting Cooper flag to be a two guard. Then he talked about him wanting to be a point guard. Like I think he’s going to put the ball in his hands a little bit more than I had expected. The Mavs also didn’t go out and get one of those higher level guards, right? I guess they bring in Daniel Russell was probably the best one that they could have gotten. I think maybe the best one that moved. Maybe you consider Schroer, but like the Mavs also didn’t really invest in that spot. And so I think that he’s going to hand Cooper Flag is going to handle the ball a little bit more than I expected on lottery night.
Yeah, I think you know just with Kid’s track record like that was that was leading up to his stint with Dallas where Kid just really wasn’t that successful as a head coach. That was like the one thing people at least credit him for was Giannis
and his development. Um, so yeah, I I mean, you know, when when Kid says point guard, I don’t know if I agree with you that I think he was talking about summer league in that specific moment, but I I don’t know if he’s in his brain thinking like, oh, he’ll start at the one, like he’ll it’s more so like we’ll give him a bunch of opportunities just in the flow of the game, bring the ball up the floor, like initiate the we’ll get a ball screen from Lively or something like uh you’ll see a lot of those and it’s it’s going to be exciting, man.
Yeah. I mean, he’s he’s not going to be a guy that just comes off, you know, screens or a pin down or an oop or something like that. Like, he’s going to come up and get the ball uh from a Ryan Nimhard in summer league or he’s going to come up and get the like actually I’ll say I do think we see him like run the point like legit run the point in summer league. Yeah, but like in the regular season they’re going to have sets and stuff where he comes off a screen and comes up and just gets the ball and then they run a pick and roll with Lively or AD or whoever it is because he is a great playmaker and that’s one of the things especially the second half of the season at Duke last year they started putting their putting the ball in his hands a lot more and man they’re running that pick and roll and he’s making a decision. He’s not the same level as Luca in the pick and roll. I mean, Luca is like a one of one maestro in that, but it’s like he he makes the right reads and he’s so physical. I do think well something we’re going to see early and this is for a lot of rookies, but especially him, he used his size so much to create space and to get in the paint when he drove at Duke. I think you’re going to see a lot of charges drawn on him because he’s going to like kind of lower that shoulder and people are just going to flop and flail and stuff. You know, the Lud Dort of the world. But I I think you’re going to see that early on that he’ll have to kind of adjust to the hey, I can’t just overpower everyone as a pick and roll guy at 69 or 610 that he’s used to doing that in college. We’ll see a little bit of that early on.
Yeah. His hand his handle is by far his biggest improvement area.
Yeah. And he it’s not like he’s sell he’s not Dorian rookie season like
Right. Right. Right. But it’s
he’s a very well. So when we’re saying like uh hey Dory $100 million in his career man what a what an incredible story.
Love that.
Same. Wish him nothing but the best always. But uh yeah I mean when we say there’s like an area to improve for Cooper Flag at this point. It’s he’s as wellrounded as you could pretty much get.
I know this aren’t like he’s bad. It’s just that he just needs to clean him up. Wild. Wild. So that’s what we think of Cooper Flag in early in his career. That’s what we think about Exom, coaching staff, all that kind of stuff. We’ll be back tomorrow talking about where the Mavs are in the NBA and what we think of all the moves that happen across the NBA. Let’s get into all that and more tomorrow. Uh come back here, go to Slightly Biased Great YouTube channel, guys. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs.
Peace out. Boom. Three weeks.

The Dallas Mavericks have addressed their ball handler issue by signing Dante Exum, but questions remain about their roster and coaching staff. How will Cooper Flagg fit into the Mavs’ plans alongside Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis in the upcoming NBA season?

Nick Angstadt, Isaac Harris, & Slightly Biased discuss the Mavericks’ recent moves, including the addition of Exum and potential coaching staff changes. They analyze Cooper Flagg’s projected role, the impact of D’Angelo Russell, and debate the possibility of LeBron James joining the Mavs, while also mentioning Dereck Lively II, PJ Washington, and Naji Marshall.

0:00 Dante Exum Solves Mavs’ Ball Handler Issue?
11:19 Mavs Coaching Staff Changes
14:27 Lebron James Buyout to Dallas Detour
22:57 Cooper Flagg’s Role Early in the Season

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