The Mavericks aren’t expected to trade the No. 1 pick

The Mavericks aren’t expected to trade the No. 1 pick

After the Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 NBA Draft lottery, most of you were probably upset that general manager Nico Harrison was rewarded for the incompetence that was the Luka Doncic trade.

Well, that was my general reaction too, outside of me subsequently getting mad that the team with the 11th-best odds (which the Heat held pre-play-in) lucked into Cooper Flagg.

Given that Harrison’s the captain of the ship, a small segment in your brain may have thought: “Well, would Harrison now trade this guy?”

It turns out, that won’t be the case, according to both ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon and NBA insider Marc Stein.

Sources: Yes, the Mavericks plan to draft Cooper Flagg.

No, Mavs governor Patrick Dumont will not look a gift horse in the mouth and consider trading the No. 1 overall pick. https://t.co/q3cORCt8tw

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) May 13, 2025

Asked today if the Mavericks would entertain trading the No. 1 overall pick rather than selecting Cooper Flagg, one source briefed on rhe team’s thinking told @TheSteinLine and @DLLS_Sports: “No chance.”

More NBA from me: https://t.co/IIIlAloJCf

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 13, 2025

We’re still over a month away from next month’s draft, a two-day event beginning on June 25.

Do the Mavericks have to explore multiple possibilities? Technically, sure. But how long would you consider not drafting Flagg? One second? Maybe two seconds? It’s a no-brainer move that they fortuitously lucked into, moving 10 spots, tied for the largest leap for a lottery winner in NBA History.

2025 NBA Draft Lottery: 4 winners, 3 losers

Flagg is the clear-cut No. 1 prospect in this class, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks on 59.3 percent true shooting this season. He won the Naismith Award and just turned 18-years-old.

You could argue that he’s one of the best all-around prospects of many of our lifetimes (depending on how old you are). This is a huge get for Dallas, though it still has plenty of work to build a legitimate contender around him in the long term.

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