Mavericks may have won the lottery, but they still have work to do

Mavericks may have won the lottery, but they still have work to do

By the biggest stroke of luck, the Dallas Mavericks won Monday’s draft lottery and, thus, #CapturedTheFlagg™.

It’s been a torture chamber for Mavericks fans for the last three months after inexplicably trading away franchise superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. They entered Monday with the 11th-best odds–an 8.5 percent chance at securing a top-4 pick and a 1.8 percent chance of the No. 1 pick.

I’m not going to argue with you about whether or not the lottery was rigged. I’ll let you decide. I don’t do conspiracy theories.

But while the Mavericks–who never moved up in their 17 prior chances, making the biggest leap for a lottery winner since 1993–luckily landed Cooper Flagg, general manager Nico Harrison has work to do.

Mavericks have a poor collection of future assets to build around Cooper Flagg:

The Mavericks gifted a life raft to the Lakers with Doncic at the deadline, and now they were rewarded with one in Flagg, a fringe-generational prospect who’s one of the best all-around prospects in recent memory. He was the best player in college basketball and wasn’t eligible to vote in this most recent presidential cycle. Crazy, right?!?

But the 6-foot-8 prospect isn’t heading to a situation set up well for the long term.

The Mavericks don’t own any of their own first-round picks from 2027-30; their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks are in Charlotte (top-2 protected) and Houston, while their 2028 and 2030 picks are swaps. Thus, they can’t trade any of their own first-round picks from 2026-30, though they do have the Lakers’ 2029 unprotected first.

From a personnel angle, their only young legitimate asset is Dereck Lively, who will be extension-eligible next offseason. Both PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford will be expiring contracts for roughly $14 million apiece, but at least one of them could be extended beyond 2025-26; Kyrie Irving, who will miss most–if not all–of next season after tearing his ACL, will be entering the last year of his contract in his age-33 season.

ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Draft Combine must improve

Dallas … doesn’t have many assets to work with here. Does Nico Harrison try and pivot off Anthony Davis? Does he try to flip Lively, Washington or Gafford to the highest bidder? What about Caleb Martin, Naji Marshall or Max Christie, who had a career year last season?

Harrison will have some incredibly important decisions to build around Flagg in a loaded Western Conference. Don’t mess it up this time!

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