Let’s make this clear at the top of this column: I’m thrilled for Dallas Mavericks fans. Ecstatic, even.
No fanbase deserves to be treated how they have been treated the last few months. Flagrant ineptitude mixed with unbearable hubris is a toxic combination, and Dallas fans have had a front-row seat witnessing this combination detonate like a fusion bomb, obliterating the core of the team they hold so dear.
They now get to start over. They get to (theoretically) root for Cooper Flagg for the next 10, 15, 20 years. They can start to put the Luka Doncic trade behind them – not completely, but at least they won’t have to fixate on it as much. Cooper Flagg is the new North Star. Good for them.
As for everyone else associated with the Dallas Mavericks – particularly the person largely responsible for building the ineptitude/hubris fusion bomb? This sucks. This is an expletive ending in -ing combined with another expletive describing the fecal matter of a male cow. This is stupid.
There is something morally, cosmically wrong when something like this happens. It goes beyond being “unfair” or “rigged” or whatever else. So much of the world is frustratingly dictated by people continually failing upward. Sports is (theoretically) supposed to be the respite from all that. Sports is (theoretically) the last true meritocracy. Rewarding ineptitude just feels worse in sports. I can’t explain why – it just does.
This was the last team that should have been rewarded with Cooper Flagg. Yet here we are. Flagg will join Anthony Davis and a healthy Kyrie Irving on a team that could make real noise in next year’s playoffs. Flagg is good enough to contribute to a 50-win team right away. He will be an overqualified “glue guy” on his rookie contract who will eventually develop into an All-NBA-level performer by the time his rookie extension kicks in.
The Doncic trade was such a disaster in large part to what it did to Dallas’ age curve and competitive window. Flagg – who doesn’t turn 19 until freakin’ December! – sets an entirely new curve and an even wider window.
Of course, there is a not-zero-percent chance Nico Harrison ships this pick to Milwaukee in exchange for Giannis. Stay tuned.
Elsewhere in the lottery
The Spurs now know how Jerry West must feel – at least a little bit. Remember when West ran the show for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2003 and the team was either going to land the No. 1 pick and LeBron James or watch that pick land anywhere else and have to ship it to the Detroit Pistons?
It wasn’t nearly that gut-wrenching. The Spurs still get to draft No. 2 and likely end up with Dylan Harper – a fabulous fit alongside the Wemby/Fox core that could/should contend in the West next year – but there was at least a moment when every Spur considered the possibility of a Wemby/Flagg pairing. Hoo boy.
The Philadelphia 76ers ran the entire gamut of emotions through the envelope reveal – first believing they would have to ship their pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder when it was clear that Dallas and San Antonio leapt into the top-four – only to find that they also snuck into the upper crust of the lottery. Not only do they keep their pick, but they’ll likely choose between athletic dynamo VJ Edgecombe or sharpshooting big Ace Bailey. Either player fits in beautifully alongside Tyrese Maxey and wide-smiling dais participant Jared McCain. If the Sixers get anything whatsoever out of the physically ailing duo of Joel Embiid and Paul George, watch out.
Perennial lottery participants Charlotte, Utah, and Washington will pick 4-5-6, respectively. This was decidedly not the evening any of these franchises had in mind. Each team has hit the reset button multiple times and cleared the decks in hopes of landing a top-three pick (or, ideally, a top-one pick) in this specific draft, only to be leapt over by a team that traded Luka Doncic and another that willfully signed a clearly hurting Embiid to a max contract extension and shamelessly tanked for two months to keep from having to send their pick to OKC. Best laid plans, etc.
Quick scheduling note
Lottery night is the unofficial start of “draft” season at Elevator Doors HQ. We’ll still be writing weekly columns about whatever is going on in the basketball world, but our companion series, “Situational Analysis,” will begin this week, as well. Since 2020, we’ve been breaking down specific draft prospects and examining the circumstances that most often influence their success.
We’ll start with Cooper Flagg. Obviously. Look for that piece coming later this week.
