NBA Free Agency | Mavericks are the West’s next big threat with NBA’s best front line – Windhorst

NBA Free Agency | Mavericks are the West’s next big threat with NBA’s best front line – Windhorst

special presented by ESPN Bet Sportsbook. It’s time to go coast to coast on some of the free agent moves you might have missed cuz there’s been a lot the last two days. Starting in Atlanta, Nquille Alexander Walker joins the Hawks via a signing trade. Four years 62 million. Mark, what do you like about the move? Great move. Add some shooting as well as Luke Canard and Trey Young actually called him and Luke Canard. Convince them to come to Atlanta. Now, let’s see if he can convince Atlanta to give him that big deal in a couple days. recruitment trey trying to make some moves here in the Eastern Conference in Memphis. Ty Derome agreed to a deal three years, 28 million. He finished third in six man of the year voting after a career best season. Brian, how do you like the fit?
Yeah, this is a dynamic guard off the bench. Can really attack, get into the paint and distribute. Can also get hot from the outside. Pass, dribble, score. Was had a great year for the Cavs. They hated to see him go, but the Grizzlies were able to move in when the Cavs were faced with second apron trouble. Ever heard of it? How about here in Los Angeles? Brook Lopez returning to his hometown of Los Angeles. Two years, $18 million with the Clippers. They surprised people with 50 wins this season. Tim, how do you like this?
I love it. Number one, he’s going to be deadly in the five pick and roll game with James Harden with his ability to space the floor. He’s a still a great rim protector. This is a guy that still got votes for third team all defense this past season. And I love the fact he has a ton of big game experience. a lot of playoff coverage for Brook Lopez. Well, and then we got the Nets free agent, D’Angelo Russell, coming back to the Western Conference. He will join Dallas on a 2-year $13 million deal. He’s coming off a career low scoring season, but he’s going to have a player option in that second year and could really help Dallas be a piece for depth for them. The Mavericks, they will be without Kyrie Irving to start the season. He’s still recovering from that ACL injury. But Dallas has plenty of options when you look at their playmakers here. They drafted Cooper Flag. They signed D’Angelo Russell. They look to have a ton of point guards here until Kyrie Irving returns. They can maybe do that by committee. Now joining us here is the man about Dallas, Tim McMahon. Howdy, Tim. The Mavericks, they’ve had a busy off season. How do they put all of these pieces together? Howdy again, Malikica. Look, like you said, D’Angel Russell is not coming in to be the point guard. He’s coming in to be the lead guard while Kyrie Irving is recovering from that torn ACL, then likely shifting to a key reserve role. But it will be point guard by committee. That’s the exact term that Nico Harrison used. And Jason Kidd made it clear he’d like to see Cooper Flag maybe even be the chairman of that committee. Expect him to have the ball in his hands for as many summer game league or summer league games as he plays. They want to test him. They want to, as Jay Kid said, make him uncomfortable. See what he can do with that. And you know, Jay Kidd sees big time point forward potential in Cooper Flag. uh compares him to Grant Hill. And for Danel Russell, he he’s not necessarily a run your team point guard. He’s a he’s a guy who can get buckets, can get his own buckets, can create for other people a little bit. And this is a situation that allows him to really play to his strengths and frankly showcase himself for the rest of league potentially next summer
and to potentially find ways that he fits in with this roster as well up until the point that Kyrie Irving returns and figure out how they want to use him going forward. Tim, thank you so very much for that insight. As we go back to our panel here, Udonis, how good do you think the Dallas Mavericks can be? Because when they traded Luca and they had some injuries to AD, they had injuries to Kyrie. We weren’t exactly having this conversation.
I think people got to take notice. I think people really got to keep an eye on Dallas and what they’re doing and how that thing manifest over there. We talking about D’Angelo Russell. I understand what he did last year, but this is a guy who shoots about 40% from the three-point line. No, he’s not a ball handler in that situation, but it doesn’t matter because AD handled the ball a lot in that situation, similar to what we talked about with Giannis. You’re going to run a lot of offense through AG. They run that four five pick and roll. I don’t know why bigs can’t figure out how to stop it, but it always works when they wear that four five pick and roll. You have a guy like Dangela Russell who can sit over there and knock down shots. You have time for Cooper Flag to develop because you have guys that stand behind him. You have the Nargie Marshals. You have the Caleb Martins. You also have Christy who came over in that trade. They have pieces. And you also have a coach that has been there and has seen everything but the win. This guy has been a Hall of Famer. This guy’s been Olympian. He’s been a player in the locker room. He knows everything about what these guys are going through. take notice and keep an eye on Dallas.
You You’re going to hear me tired to get me tired of hear me saying this, but depth and size. Size and depth. Depth and size team.
Look at this team. Size and depth. They have terrific depth throughout this team. They’ve really built over the last couple of years. They can play huge if they want. I mean, look, they’re going to see times this year where Cooper Flag is going to play point forward. And I’m actually very interested to see it. There’s not going to be a lot of pressure on this team early. They’re going to be expected to play their best basketball late. let Cooper Flag experiment a little bit. If they don’t have their best year next year, it’s not a big deal. You’re going to have Kyrie Irving recovering anyway. I like this team over the next couple of years and they’ve really positioned themselves to have such great size. It makes such a difference when you look at these top teams in the West.
I agree with Wendy. I love that point you just made. It’s not all in this coming season because of the Kyrie Irving situation. And what that means is Cooper Flag gets one year to season himself, but he’s going to have an impact immediately. you’re going to be better because of Cooper Flags impact defensively from day one and his passing is really going to surprise people the way this guy can read the floor. I think eventually he can extend his range out to 24 ft. He’s got a little bit of a mechanical hitch that I think he needs to work on if he wants to become a legitimate deep threat from that distance at the NBA level. But his competitiveness, his toughness, and his IQ right off the bat are going to make them better. You still have Anthony Davis. D’Angelo Russell is a nice pickup, but it’s the year after that’s when I think they’re going to be trying to go all in in the West.
You know, 10 years ago, uh, Nike signed his kid out of Ohio State, very exciting guard, D’Angelo Russell.
It was it was Nico Harrison that signed him.
So, they have had a long, long relationship. D’Angelo is looking to go to a place where, look, he he this isn’t a great free agency market, not a lot of money. Go there, do some great things, be able to start, be able to win. He’s excited about this and also he’s a former teammate of Anthony Davis. They had a great rapport together on and off the court. So he he knows what it is. He knows what happens when Kyrie comes back and he knows they can win and he knows it can make him look great. So it’s a great move for D’Angelo Russell.
Understanding your role and having that understanding coming in is really important on teams that are trying to win. It’s going to be interesting because Cooper flag, you don’t often see a number one pick coming into a situation where you’re expected to win, where you’re expected to make a push for the playoffs. But talking to Cooper at the draft, he’s cut out for this. This is what he wants to do. This is what he’s looking forward and a group he’s looking forward to learning from. The Dallas Mavericks dangerously lurking maybe is how we’re going to put it here in the Western Conference. It has become incredibly incredibly crowded. Coming up all time, what do you think of? We thought we’d do a little top of the top. These are picked by our producers. Starting at number five, what do you think? Steve Nash to the Suns in 2004. He promptly won MVP in each of his first two seasons with Phoenix while leading the Suns to three West Finals appearances in their 7 seconds or less era. And then at number four, LeBron returning to Cleveland where he led the Cavs to four straight finals and ended the city’s 52-year championship round. That’s what I’m thinking. That’s number four. That seven game series against a 73 win Warriors team. Then what do we got about this?
Okay, I get this. KD signing with those 73 win Warriors. That I’m okay with being maybe higher on the list. I promise it’s not just hometown cooking.
I know.
We got a load of money. I know. You know, Shaq signed for seven for 119.
Purle just got a better deal. Well, speaking of Shaq at number two all the way back 96 Magic sorry short of a million
over seven years it is over seven years a magic deal.
So then at number one the decision LeBron took his talents to South Beach to pair with a pair of championships reach four finals in four seasons Dwayne Wade Chris Bosch
and our own Udonis Hasll. But that was then, this is now. A little bit of a different feel to this free agency than those, but no shortage of impactful moves here. So, we thought we’d do a little fill in the blank free agency special. Why I am struggling with that, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because we’ve been on air for 3 hours. I thought we’d start with the biggest surprise of this free agency legs. The biggest surprise of this free agency.
All right. I’m going here, man. I’m going
Oh, I I didn’t I did not see this. I did not see a reset to this point. They finished the year. You’re wondering what are they going to do to give themselves another chance to win in the Yokicera. They have done that and more.
You know why I like this? Cuz it’s surprise good thing. You could take that either way. You could take surprise like oh pleasantly surprised or you could take surprised and think a little surprised.
Same as these.
You going with the nuggets as well. I really like what the nuggets have done.
Box.
They have been surprised.
They move that that shook up the Yesterday I was telling them throwing the chips. I was saying no when to hold them, know when to fold them.
They came out this morning swinging. So they surprised everybody. They surprised everybody. And this morning when I saw when I saw Miles Turner, I said, “Oh, okay.” And then the Dame news that was really, really surprising. Okay. Uh, who is under the most pressure? Blank is under the most pressure this summer.
That’s tough. Under pressure. But Legs is like, I got this. I’m ready to go. All right, Legs. Go first. Yes, Kevin Durant. Huh?
Kevin Durant. The clock’s ticking. He really wants that other championship outside of Golden State. He’s around a very young team. Kevin Rance’s got a couple of years to try to get this done. They position him as well as they could.
UD, you got a lot of people you got to make happy over there and you got to get a center. You got to figure out how
is it the Lakers or is it Rob? Give a little bit of both.
Yeah. Yeah. You got Yeah. You got to figure it out. You got your peck in order. Who you going to make happy first? You got to establish a pecking order.
I got red panda’s doctor. I I hope Red Panda is okay. She fell. She fell tonight in Minneapolis. We send you the best. We hope you’re going to be okay.
Yeah, she fell in the Commissioner’s Cup performance. We hope that she is doing well.
New York management and owner.
Oh,
interesting. Good one.
New York management and owner. Just got to the East Finals, man.
And now you got to get the right coach. Yep. Absolutely.
Killer Mike.
All right, let’s get some winners in here. Who’s the biggest winner of free agency? the biggest winner of this 2025 free agency. I like our thinking music here. I also love that Legs is clearly studied for this test and he’s ready to go. What you got, Legs?
I We just keep talking about the same team, but yeah, I’m going with the Houston Rockets. I I just think you look at where they where they were two seed a year ago, but nobody thought they were a contender. That’s different now. They’re they could be a two seed and a contender this year.
Were you a good test taker in school?
Pretty good. Yeah, I can I feel that energy from you, Mr. win first.
Miles Turner, who two days ago they were like, “Well, where are you going to sign Miles? We’re all Everyone’s out. Everyone’s” and Miles Turner’s agent, Austin Brown, shout out. That was pretty good work that you came up with that maneuver to get him paid. That was such a good answer. You’re making Spears change his his answer over here.
That’s a good one. I know we could put players, but since we can’t.
Yes, you can. Huh?
Game time. This dude is free. Free at last. Free at last. He ain’t got to go to Milwaukee no more.
And got his money. Got his money. to make a choice and he can stay home with his babies.
UD’s changing his answer, too. We got a lot of switch ups here.
I was going to be a little creative, but I I got to be honest. I’m going just go back to Houston. I I have to be honest that they to me that what they’ve done and been able to keep their core and I know they got three centers, but they loading up for Joker. They understand the assignment wholly and fully. So, I’m gonna stay with Houston. You guys are you guys are sharing off your papers over here. All right. If we did biggest winner, that means we have to do the other side. the biggest loser in this free agency. The biggest loser in this free agency. It can be a team. It can be a player. It could be a executive apparently. It can be a halftime performer’s doctor. It We can get creative here.
Go first.
Yeah. What do you got, Mr. Spears?
I got Kaminga and these mid-level free agents, man. Like, this is a tough market.
That’s a good one.
I’m sorry, guys. Next year is going to be a better year for you. Be be creative. figure this out.
Get creative, man.
What do you got? You got one yet? I’m going to go with the Milwaukee Bucks. I, you know, and I think, look, you just lost 24 and a half points at your lead guard position. He’s not there anymore. Cost him a lot of money to do that. You, you lost Brook Lopez, good replacement, Mile Turner, but you don’t know what the effect’s going to be on Jiannis Takoupo. This could be the biggest loser of all if particularly he’s unhappy.
You notice I see waffling. You’re going to like this one. Uh, I’m going to say Boston. Look, they knew they did what they had to do, but they’re they’ve just they’ve had to take a big part of their team apart. I I don’t even know. And and Jaylen Brown had knee surgery. I I don’t know. They might be a playin team next year.
You go the Knicks. You still got to figure out what you’re going to do with your coaching staff. You’re making moves. I love bringing in Clarkson. I love everything you’re doing, but at the end of the day, you need somebody to lead that group and bring it all together. All right. Well, free agency.

NBA Free Agency | Mavericks are the West’s next big threat with NBA’s best front line – Brian Windhorst