Charles Barkley rips Dallas Mavericks for Cooper Flagg point guard experiment
It didn’t take long for pundits to find issue with the new-look Dallas Mavericks, with Charles Barkley lambasting the franchise’s use of No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg in his debut.
Flagg got off to slow start in the first half with zero points, while initiating the offense at times in a role that Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer and “Inside the NBA” commentator, said misused the Duke product.
“The Dallas Mavericks trying to outthink everybody, think they the smartest dude in the world and realized it’s just basketball,” Barkley said. “They need a point guard, first of all. Cooper Flagg, he only got two attempts. Why’s he only got two attempts? They got him trying to initiate the offense. Man, start D’Angelo Russell till Kyrie [Irving] comes back. These guys always wanna act like let’s reinvent the wheel. Man, it’s basketball. ... They didn't even put Cooper Flagg in a position to be successful.”
Flagg eventually scored the first bucket of his NBA career at the beginning of the second half, a top-of-the-key jump shot off a handoff from Dereck Lively.
The Mavs started Flagg, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Anthony Davis and Lively. With Kyrie Irving not expected back till January, head coach Jason Kidd has been vocal about Flagg playing point guard.
Kenny Smith agreed with Barkley, arguing Flagg shouldn’t be concerned about the duties of a point guard and that he should instead be focused on offensive rebounding, finishing and cutting, saying those are the things he’ll be great at.
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM.
