The Dallas Mavericks had the next decade of their franchise saved when they won the NBA Draft Lottery, gifting them the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg. After they traded away Luka Doncic for no good reason, the end of the decade and into the 2030s was looking bleak.
Because Nico Harrison is still the team’s general manager, everyone is expecting them to do something crazy with the first pick. All indications are that Dallas plans to keep the pick and select Flagg, which is the easy selection, but that isn’t stopping people from firing off some wild takes.
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Former NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins went on a wild run of hot takes about the Mavericks the other day, this time saying they need to trade the Cooper Flagg pick for Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
“Kevin Durant wouldn’t be a bad move there, either, with that number one pick… Nico [Harrison] is already on record saying it’s a three-year [championship] window as far as winning a championship, so Cooper Flagg doesn’t fit that window. Kevin Durant does. So I absolutely think he’ll trade that number one pick.”
Although Durant is still putting up amazing numbers, he’s going to be 37 years old by the time the next season starts. Cooper Flagg won’t turn 19 until December. Even if his ceiling may not be on the level of a Kevin Durant, trying to pool together contracts to trade for Durant would gut the team from being in serious contention. Flagg has a high enough floor to help the team win now. Trading him for Durant would be a disastrous move, and the Mavericks have had enough bad moves to last them for a while.
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