Anthony Davis at the 4 WILL WORK for Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks

Anthony Davis at the 4 WILL WORK for Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks

On today’s show, not only do the Mavs need to lean into the two big system for Anthony Davis’s sake, it’s also the best for Cooper Flag, too. I’ll tell you why. And today’s like the Mavs. The number one pick will go to the Dallas Mavericks. Cooper Flag will fly in Dallas. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast part of the locked on podcast network. Still can’t leave. your team every day. I’m going to get a city like back. And welcome. You are locked down on the Dallas Mavericks your team every day. My name is Nick Angst medium member covering the Bad for 10 years. Thanks for being in every dare. Making lockdown maps your first listen each and every day. Today’s episode I want to talk about AD playing the four and how it actually helps Cooper flag helps him game plan against Anthony Davis at the four. That’s going to be good and beneficial for the Mavericks. And I’m gonna start just talking all about why the two big system is actually going to be great for the Dallas Mavericks. And this is on the backs of Isaac talking to Mike Shed, former assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks. And uh great conversation. That was a good episode yesterday. If you missed that, go check it out wherever you’re listening watching this. Go listen to that episode. But they talked about the two big system and why it’s it’s good and why it’s kind of coming back. And so I want to dive into that a little bit deeper. I think the Mavs have to go with the two big system with the main core of the roster they have now. And yes, obviously you go, yeah, well, obviously they have Lively, they have Gaffford, they have Anthony Davis, you have to go with the two big system because of your personnel that you have right now. But yes, that is true. The first thing that I thought about when I started really diving into this and saying, “All right, the Mavs have to go with the two big system.” I think that is true just because of how the roster is shaped. But also, it is easier to replace Anthony Davis with this roster at the four than it would be at the five. The Mavs have two centers. They can play Anthony Davis as another center. They also have Dwight Powell still hanging strong, Dwight Pal. But it is way easier to replace Anthony Davis, honestly. And it’s better for Cooper Flag if he slides into the four and replaces AD when AD misses games than if AD was the center. and all of a sudden you go, “All right, now we only maybe have one good center on the team.” If they had gotten rid of Gaffford, brought him brought him in and and you know, did something like that. Or if he was playing the if AD was playing the five full-time, then you have Lively and Gaffford backing him up. That’s obviously too it’s too many bigs in the roster, too many mouths to feed when it comes to that. And so playing AD at the four, just for the sheer sake of AD is going to miss games. Let’s not be let’s let’s not beat around the bush on this. He’s an incredible player. I’ve argued a bunch of times this summer and when the Mavs first traded for him that he is a top 10 player in the NBA, but he’s going to miss games. It’s just going to happen. He’s going to miss games. It happens every single year. Last year, he missed not as many games. Year before that, not not a ton of games actually for Anthony for Anthony Davis that he missed. He played he played 76 games in 2023 24. Last year got last year was at 51. 2023 was 56. 2022 it was 40. the year before that 2021 it was 36. Now, those are shortened. You know, 2021 was a shortened season, but still in 2020 when they won the title with the Lakers, he he played 62. That was a shortened season two. So, that one wasn’t as bad as it looks like. And Davis is going to miss games. So, for him to to play the four, it is actually better for for Cooper flag. He plays the four, they lean into this double big system. And then when he misses time, this team is way is was so capable of replacing him way easier than if he was playing the five and they only had one center and they had traded Gaffford basically, right? And that’s kind of so you’re you’re insured for Anthony Davis, I think, with this roster because Cooper Flag can play the four, PJ Washington can play the four, you can play Naji Marshall at at times at the four if you really want to slide up and, you know, and do that. But I think that just having Cooper flag and having Anthony Davis play play that four when he ever misses games, it’s gonna be way easier to to replace him. Now, you could also use that argument and say, well, they should then they should have used one of the centers to to go and uh since they have fours, they should have used one of the centers to go get a guard. We talked about that all offseason. It doesn’t look like the Mavericks are going to do that, which is fine. Now, they’ve got this two big system, and I do think it’s going to work. Flag is almost better as a versatile fill in the gaps player than he is just as a set. You play this one position player. And I think this is going to help him earlier in his career. Anthony Davis playing the four and having Cooper Flag slide down and play this three, maybe even sometimes two, handle the ball sometimes. Jason Kit has mentioned this. They talked about it all through summer league. Obviously, it was one of our big talking points through all of summer league is Cooper Flack is going to handle the ball for the summer league team. I think he’s going to do it for the Mavericks, too, especially with Kyrie out. They’re going to give him some opportunity, take his lumps early, work on his guard skills. I think that’s better for Cooper Flag for his long-term development to play next to those fives like that to work on some of those things. I see this as a development year for Flag. Development year for an 18-year-old. Of course, that that is what this season should be for him. The Mavs are going to be a win now team. So yeah, you want Cooper Flag to be utilized as best as best as possible, but I think it’s better to utilize the areas where he’s maybe not as great this season than to just put him in a scenario where you go, “All right, well, this is your natural position. You play the best basketball you can right now at this very moment.” In the system the Mavericks are in right now with two bigs, with Anthony Davis, with Lively with Gaffford and Cooper Flag playing a three, sometimes two, sometimes four, I think he’s forced to work on his guard skills, work on his wing skills, be better guarding smaller guys, and that’s going to help his versatility going forward. That’s going to help him be able to do to do it all in all kinds of different ways for the Mavericks. I think that is more beneficial for Flag. And so that’s why I think that the two big system helps both Anthony Davis and it helps Cooper Flag because Cooper Flag can slide into that four when Anthony Davis misses time. The Mavericks are going to, you know, not not going to miss a beat rotation wise. They’ll miss a beat because Anthony Davis is great. But they’ll rotation wise they’ll be set for Cooper Flag to slide up there. But it is better for Anthony Davis to be playing and for Cooper Flag to work on his work on the guard skills, to guard smaller players, to work on that part of his game because then eventually when Anthony Davis leaves, Cooper Flag then slides back up to the four and now he’s got all these guard skills that he’s been working on for two, three years and he can score the ball in his hands, run a pick and roll with a guy like Anthony Davis, with a guy like Derrick Lively, with a guy like Daniel Gaffford. He’s going to have all those opportunities. He wouldn’t have as many if he was playing the four, I don’t think. And so he’ll have those because Anthony Davis is a great roller. Live is a great roller. Anthony Davis can can face up a little bit. Flag can also play off of Anthony Davis and set some screens for him too. But I think overall I think this two big system is going to be great for for Flag as well. Another reason why the Mavs have to go with this two big system and it’s best for the Mavericks, Anthony Davis wants to play the four. We mentioned this a lot and it’s like well documented, but I want to talk about how well documented it is with the Mavericks right now. So going back to January before the trade even happened, Anthony was asked about his preference about playing the four when he was with the Lakers and he said the front office knows that I told him that every year that I’ve been here that he wants to that he wants to play the four. Okay, he’s very specific about it. February 4th, Anthony Davis says he thinks that the plan regarding him playing power forward, he thinks that that’s the plan for the Mavericks. He’s eager to play with centers Derrick Lively and Daniel Gaffford. And he was excited about that being the plan. February 7th, Anthony Davis said he feels power forward is his natural position. He has no problem playing center, but playing there contributes to wear and tear on his body. Another reason why it’s better for the Mavericks to lean in this two big system with Anthony Davis is to have AD not have as much wear and tear on his body. Playing center is tough in the NBA. You have to do a lot. You have to defend a lot. You have to defend bigger guys. You’re going up against Joic and he’s, you know, trying to score down low. Sabonis is trying to score down low. Shenon is trying to score down low like you play with these bruisers and that’s what Lively and Gaffford are going to do. Anthony Davis playing against fours play and getting able and being able to to roam around and play defense the way that he wants to offensively not having to just run pick and rolls all the time. He can do some face up stuff. He can do some other things and he can be more versatile as a four than if you’re playing the five where you just kind of have to roll and play in the dunker spot unless you’re a shooter. And so the wear and tear on his body is something that Anthony Davis has specifically mentioned. and you mentioned that on February 7th and I think that’s another reason why it’s good for him. Klay Thompson mentioned this on February 10th. This is a player on the Mavericks that’s played with Anthony Davis that has played against him a lot in his career. Clay said this. He showed he’s best at best he’s the best power forward in the NBA when he’s available and locked in. AD is so good. I’m just excited to be his teammate. The best power forward in the NBA. You have a guy that’s the best at his position. You let him play that position. And that’s coming from Klay Thompson. So if you you don’t have to disagree with me, disagree with Klay Thompson. And Klay Thompson is on a hot streak right now. So I don’t know if you want to go against Klay Thompson. He’s he’s betting the house and he’s winning. Jason Kidd on March 24th. This is, you know, well into Anthony Davis’s tenure with the Mavericks. Jason Kidd said the Mavericks will start Anthony Davis at power forward tonight. We’ll try to keep 80 at the four as much as possible here. You might see a little of him at the five. That that is the coach coming out and saying that, “Hey, we’re going to keep Anthony Davis at the four as much as possible while he’s here. And so there’s it’s documented that AD wants to play the four. His teammates, his coach see him best at the at the four. He’s going to be playing four. I think it’s great for Cooper Flag to for Anthony Davis to play the four for them to play this big lineup. And I’m going to tell you why this big lineup is going to be good for the Mavericks and why it’s going to be effective going off of something what Shed said yesterday. Let’s talk about that and more coming up. 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Anthony Davis wants to play the fours and he’s one of the best in the NBA and Klay Thompson said he is the best four in the NBA. So, there you go. You got that endorsement. And Anthony Davis is good at the four because he’s skilled. He’s a skilled player. He can do a lot of things. We’re not just putting a player at at four that is like pushing him out of position that can’t do a bunch of stuff. Anthony Davis can work in the face up game. He can do a whole lot with the ball in his hands and to, you know, like play face up against guys, to drive, to finish, to hit jump shots, to do all kinds of things. And when you have a skilled player like that, you want to put them in positions to be able to use that. If you have Anthony Davis at the five, he can’t do that stuff as often because you don’t have a lob threat that he can play off of. And I think that is a huge thing for him to play off of a lob threat and to work in that face up game. If you have him at the five, then your perimeter players are kind of all like hanging around the perimeter. Anthony Davis, like it’s easier for him to get for a double team to come, a trap to come. If you don’t have somebody hanging out at the rim because all of a sudden, if somebody comes for a trap, they rotate. Anthony Davis can throw up to a lob out of that face up. Working with a lob threat is something that he’s really good at. And we talk a lot about shooting gravity, like Chris, like Steph Curry’s gravity, Klay Thompson’s gravity, we’ve talked about a lot where those are players that shoot the three ball so well that defenders just kind of like have to stay home and have to to stay on those guys on the perimeter. But vertical gravity and gravity at the rim is something too. You’ve got a Lively hanging out at the rim. You’ve got a Gaffford hanging out around the rim and you cannot leave their their body at all. Like Luca used to take advantage of this a lot. I think AD does this really well, too. If you’ve got a guy down there that you just cannot like leave, then all of a sudden it opens up some of the middle the mid-range stuff and that’s where AD can go to work. That’s the face up stuff I’m talking about where he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s working in a triple threat one-on-one against somebody and he just powers through them or hits a shot over them or something like that. And I think that’s where we’re going to see a lot of his work done. He averaged 4.4 assists last year. That would have been his career high. Now it was only nine games with the Mavericks. But I think that’s because he had a lob threat and had really good ones. He had Gaffford and he had Lively from multiple games and we got to see him play off of those guys and I think we’re going to see a career year passing for Anthony Davis. It’s going to be a passing by committee team. We talked a lot about all right, they need another playmaker. They brought in D’Angel Russell. That’s a solid one. Brought in Cooper Flag. He’s going to bring some. You got Brandon Williams. You’ve got Klay Thompson’s going to do a little bit here and there. Anthony Davis is going to do a lot, too. And I think him working off of those lob threats is going to help him. 4.4 assists would be a careerhigh. And I think we’re I think he’s going to hit that with the Mavericks this season. Feeling pretty good about that. And then Anthony Davis is a shooter, too. Like he can he can hit a shot. The Mavs will probably live and die off of Anthony Davis jump shots next year. If he’s not hitting that, then it it doesn’t matter. No. Like if he doesn’t if he doesn’t hit those shots playing as the four, playing in that triple threat, playing in the face up, then the Mavs weren’t going to win a bunch of games because he wouldn’t hit those at the five anyway. You know what I mean? like they’re they’re going to live and die on that on that skill for him. His shooting the three has not been great over the last couple years, but his shooting mid-range has been been all right. And if he can hit those, then all of a sudden he’s an unstoppable player. That’s the thing with him is the possibilities. That’s the thing with him since the beginning of his career is the possibilities he opens up. He can do almost anything on a basketball court. And so when he’s doing that work, all of a sudden you go, “All right, well, what are we going to do? We going to stay home on him? Okay, he hits a shot over top of us. Okay, we’re gonna send somebody else. All right, he can be he can be a good enough passer or he can just split the defense, hit hit a floater over us or whatever. You just you don’t have very many options against Anthony Davis because of the size and his abilities. And that’s why he can play the four and he’s good at the four. One of the best at the four because he’s skilled in that way. And I think having that lob threat as as the five, I keep going back to that because I think that opens a lot of things up. And so that’s why him as the as the four instead of all right, he’s the five and then he can do all this stuff too, right? Well, I think the lob thread opens up a lot of these things. Mike Shed, so he’s assistant coach for the Mavs, was on the show yesterday. He said this about working inside out basically for for the Mavs with AD at the four and like playing another five next to Anthony Davis. He said, “If you don’t have great shooting at the two or the three, you could put a ton of pressure on the rim.” This made me really think about this actually is the quote that made me really think about this show and why I wanted to talk about this. The Mavs have Klay Thompson obviously great. That would be great shooting. But I think when you bring in an AI Marshall and you bring in a Caleb Martin, I think Max Christie is a good shooter. Uh but you got PJ Washington probably at the three, Cooper Flag at the three, I’m not sure what his three-point shot is going to look like right away in the NBA. And so outside of Clay, you probably have some shaky shooting at the two and the three. If you don’t have that three-point pressure that is like really good that everybody has to stay home on, that you’ve got obvious threats where the defense has to respect all those shooters. If you don’t have that, then the way that you can put pressure on a defense is at the rim. So, the Mavericks with this, they don’t have the best shooters except outside of Clay and Angel Andrew Russell will be that too, but he was talking about he was talking about the wings specifically. If you don’t have a ton of three-point like great three-point shooting at the at the wings, then what you do as a team is you just put a ton of pressure on the rim and you just go to the rim over and over again. And if you can do that, then all of a sudden that vertical gravity that I talked about earlier with the lob threat with Anthony Davis hit, you know, throwing it up to Lively or Gaffford, that rim pressure, then all of a sudden opens up those shooters cuz somebody else has to come help. All of a sudden, a team is going to get stuck with a smaller defender on Anthony Davis. He gets to the rim. Then all of a sudden, another defender comes over to help because you can’t just give up the rim to Anthony Davis. So defender comes over to help. Now all of a sudden you’ve got an open three-point shooter. And it’s way better to take an open three-point to take an open shot as a three-point shooter than a contested one, especially if you got shaky shooters, right? Like, think about how much better that is. And so, I think that inside out game for the Mavericks is going to be key and them putting a ton of pressure on the rim. And then if you try to take away the rim, putting two defenders down there, clogging the paint a little bit, it opens up your shooters again. And so, the Mavs are going to be a inside out team. They’re going to be a team that forces pressure on the rim. I think Flag will do that a lot. Obviously AD will put pressure on the rim with Lively and Gaffford as well and then that will open up shooters. It’s like the opposite of what the NBA has been recently where the NBA has been like, “All right, we’re gonna spread the floor with these these five out shooters and then we can put pressure on the rim.” The Mavs are going to be the opposite of that. I’m skeptical on how effective it’ll be. I don’t think the Mavericks will be like a top 10 offense next year, but I think it’ll be good enough and I think the Mavericks will be able to do enough to win a bunch of games. Their defense is going to be what’s going to fuel them next year. And shed also said this like teams have to try and game plan against the rim for Anthony Davis like the game plan against Anthony Davis at the rim is all right let’s put let’s put a big there but he’s going to dribble pass he’s going to be able to to beat any any like plotting big okay so you put a smaller four on him okay he can power through them then all of a sudden the bigger big comes and helps and then you’ve got the lob threat up top like that game plan is going to be fascinating to watch teams and how they try and take that away and how they have tried to take it away is something that I I was reading. I was going through like game planning against Anthony Davis. I was searching that online for different writeups of it and there was one I found from SB Nation that was about the Mavs Lakers game and they said because they were fascinated to see how the Lakers would game plan against Anthony Davis and what they did was they just denied the ball. They just denied Anthony Davis the ball and just like try to make it as tough as possible to get the ball into him. Send doubles over that. you know, you can overplay and foul. And to me, that first of all proved that Anthony Davis is as good as people say that if he’s getting denied that hard, then that means that when he gets the ball, bad things happen for a defense. But if teams are doing that, they’re trying so hard to just deny Anthony Davis the ball. What does that leave Cooper Flag open to do? A lot. What does that leave Lively to do in a short role? What does that leave D’Angelo Russell to do, Klay Thompson to do? that attention on Anthony Davis to just like deny him the ball, maybe send a double, maybe send a maybe send help, maybe overplay and foul and then get into foul trouble. That opens up so much for everything else and for everybody else. So, I think this inside out game is is going to help and game plan for Anthony Davis maybe harder at the four than it is at the five actually. Coming up, some other positives for the Mavericks and why this five out this playing two big system is going to work for them. And then the two big systems is coming back. I’m going to go through all the teams that are doing it. It’s a lot. We’ll talk about that and more coming up. [Music] All right, let’s get into the this. I’m talking about why the two big system is a must for the Mavericks. It’s actually going to be really positive for him. I was talking about game plan against Anthony Davis. Denying him the ball is the best thing that you can do, which is very telling on how good of a player he is. You have to deny him the ball. Um, the Mavs have to dominate on the re on the boards. And this is something we have not seen the Mavericks do very often. Isaac has the the classic joke from lockdown Mavs in 2022 where he’s like rebounding doesn’t matter because that 2022 team rebounding did not matter. The Mavs would lose the rebound batt battle like every single game and they would come away with wins because they would hit a ton of threes. This team is going to be the opposite of that team. This team h probably has to win the rebounding battle. You’ve got to get a ton of boards. Anthony Davis is a doubledigit rebound machine and we’re going to see a ton of rebounds get had by Flag, PJ, AD, Lively, Gaffford’s going to get in there and get some. And they’ve got to dominate dominate the boards and that is a hard thing to to personel to to game plan against because when you have that much size between a center and then Anthony Davis next to him, you have to have the personnel to match it. Like literal size at the four, probably the three, and definitely the five. If you don’t have the size, like think about the the Warriors. They’re just gonna struggle against this Mavs team. The Mavs are just gonna dominate them with their size. Do you think about some of these teams like the Kings are starting uh Keegan Murray at the four? You think about like some some of these teams that I’m not the teams that I’m about to not mention, the ones that are not playing these double bigs, they just do not have the literal humans to defend both a center and Anthony Davis at the same time. And that inherently just becomes an advantage if you just don’t have the literal size. Like that is a thing you you can try to game plan against and you know how you game plan against it? You send multiple people to it. And that’s what I was talking about earlier with denying Anthony Davis the ball. And so I think that’s another thing about game plan against Anthony Davis. Sometimes you just have to have a little personnel and a lot of teams just don’t have it. Like I’m even trying to think about all right the Thunder. They’re going to have to send help and they’re going to have to overplay and they’re going to have to do a lot of things. I don’t think they they can play their two guys. I think Chad’s going to be too small for Anthony Davis. I think Isaiah Hartinstein may not be a good enough defender for Anthony Davis and I think that’s gonna that’s that’s caused them problems in the past and I’m interested to see that that matchup for sure. Think the Thunder is still better than Mavs but I’m can still I could still be interested in the matchup. If you don’t have the size for Lively Gaffford AD flag PJ then you’re cooked. You’re just cooked as a as a team and the Mavs it’s going to be easier for the Mavericks to score points against some of those teams. And so you just look across the league and are like, “All right, who doesn’t have enough size?” You’re screwed. Pelicans probably done. Suns, we’ll see about their size. If Mark Williams plays, if Malawatch is good enough early. Kings, no. Warriors, no. Lakers, probably not either. Starting Ruie. So, I’ll see. We’ll see how that matchup goes once the Mavericks get in get into everything. I’m not taking anything from that matchup last year. That was one game. Nuggets probably have the size for it. It’s probably it’s probably one of the teams. Blazers, they’ve got size, but I don’t know if it’s effective size. You’re starting like Jeremy Grant, Donovan Klingan, Young Hansen, Jazz definitely not. They’ve got size, but I don’t think it’s effective size. Like, you start going through the teams like some of these teams just literally don’t have the players to match up against it. You can also make up for lack of perimeter defenders with size, too. And this is why the two big system is so necessary for this Mavericks team. They don’t have elite point of attack defenders. They have some good ones, but you look at so so you have Caleb Martin, you have Max Christie, you have Naji Marshall, Cooper Flag, what he’s going to bring this year, Dante Exom, what he’s going to what he’s still able to bring. You’ve got some solid perimeter defenders, but you don’t have elites. You don’t have the best of the best out there that they’re making all all defensive teams. Like none of these guys are going to make it all defensive team except for maybe Flag eventually. And so you can make up for that. Look at what the Cavs did. Cavs were the were the eighth best defense in the NBA last year and they’re starting Mitchell and Garland. Mitchell is like 61, 62. Garland is small. These are small guards that are having to defend a lot. They’re not elite defenders by any stretch of the imagination. And they were the eighth best defense last year because of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley doing their thing up front. And it’s not like they had an elite perimeter defender until they got DeAndre Hunter. And even Jodger Hunter I don’t think is like all defense so you can make up for it. Miami another one they started Bam Adabio and Kell wear both bigs and Miami was the ninth best defense last year with Tyler Herro Terry Roier Duncan Robinson playing a ton of minutes. They had DaVon Mitchell towards the end he’s a really good perimeter defender but he only played like 30 games or something for them. They’re still top 10 in defense. Think about the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have Bane who’s solid. Jaylen Wells who’s a rookie that was pretty solid. But then it’s John Morant, it’s Luke Canard playing a ton of minutes at guard for these for them. And you play Zack Edy and Jiren Jackson Jr. and you’ve got a top 10 defense. And so the Mavs will run will be similar to those those teams. I think I think they’ll be a top 10 defense just because of the size with those guys. And so that can make up for a Klay Thompson getting older, a D’Angel Russell not being a good defender and all that. The two big systems coming back too. And I think the Mavs, whether they intended to or not, got ahead of the curve in a way. You’ve got the Mavs with AD Lively and Gaffford. You’ve got the Rockets. They’ve been playing this too big. They’ve played the two big lineup in the playoffs. I don’t know how much they’re going to play in the regular season. They didn’t play it at all in the regular season last year. Some people are like, “Oh, the Rockets now have this too big thing.” They they didn’t play it one possession in the regular season. That’s why it was so amazing they started playing it against the Warriors. People were like, “Man, they didn’t play this at all in the regular season. Now they’re leaning into it.” so much. I don’t know how much they’re going to do it, but they added Capella to that group. So, it makes you think that they did like that too big system. They bring in KD. They’re going to have to cover up for some deficiencies when he misses games or just because he’s older, he can’t play defense at the same level that he always has. They lost Dylan Brooks as a perimeter defender. So, they’re going to have to make up for it with some size. And that’s an interesting one. The Clippers added John Collins and Brook Lopez. They’ve got Zubots. They’re going to be playing some two big lineups for sure. They’re going to be playing some big stuff there. The Grizzlies, I mentioned them, Jiren Jackson Jr., Zack Edy, Brandon Clark. They’ve got some bigs. They’ll be playing some double big. The Timberwolves with Julius Randle as a big. They’ve also got Goar, Nas Reed for sure. Mentioned the Thunder with Chatton Hartinstein. We’ve seen them play play big. They just added Thomas Sorber who’s another big. And so that’s somebody to to think about for them if they’re going to try to get him some time as a rookie. And you got the Spurs, Victor Romanyama as big as they come. And then you’ve got Luke Cornet, they added Kelly Oolen as well. And so I think they’ll play some some Webby at the four lineups. The West, I mean, that’s like half the teams I just mentioned that are be playing these two big systems and you’re going to have to have the personnel for all of them. If you don’t have the personnel for a Zubots and then all of a sudden a John Collins comes in too, that’s too much size and you just can’t deal with it. The Mavs have the size to deal with all these teams. the East. They’ve they’ve got a couple teams less in the West, but still you got Cleveland with Mobly and Allen. They also added Larry Nance. Still got Dean Wade, too, who’s like kind of connected to the Mavericks. We haven’t talked about that yet, but that’s an interesting one. I don’t know how true that is. You’ve got the Knicks with Carl Anthony Townsen and Mitchell Robinson. You’ve got the Bucks with Miles Turner, Giannis, Bobby Poris, and then the who I mentioned before with Bam, and Khloe Wear. Like, these teams are playing these double bigs for a reason. And if you have a skilled enough one, a WBY, a Bam, a Cet, a Cat, a Shangon, a Jiren Jackson Jr., an Anthony Davis, if you’ve got a skilled enough one and you can make it work, it can be a really positive thing for you. There’s a lot of really good things that can happen playing double bigs. And I think it’s going to work for the Mavericks. I don’t know if it’ll work on a championship level, but it’ll definitely work on a winning a bunch of games level and helping Cooper Flags development in his first season. That’s what I think about this. Go check out the show uh with Isaac yesterday and go check out our text line. There’s a link in the description wherever you’re watching this. Great stuff all the time. There we’re texting you. All the rumors we hear, guys. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out.

The Dallas Mavericks are embracing a two-big system with Anthony Davis at power forward, which could benefit Cooper Flagg’s development. This strategy allows the Mavs to maximize AD’s skills while preparing for his potential absences and helping Flagg work on his versatility in the NBA.

Nick Angstadt discusses why the Mavericks’ two-big lineup with Anthony Davis at the 4 is crucial for the team’s success and Cooper Flagg’s growth. He explores how this system impacts Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, and the overall roster construction, mentioning insights from Klay Thompson and former assistant coach Mike Shedd.

0:00 Two-Big System Benefits Cooper Flagg
13:20 Inside-Out Game & Rim Pressure
22:27 Mavs’ Size Advantage & Defensive Potential

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