Even with Cooper Flagg, Luka Doncic trade still shadows Dallas Mavericks | Opinion
In their fourth career NBA games, LeBron James scored seven points, Luka Doncic 21, Michael Jordan 25, Dirk Nowitzki 8, Tim Duncan 19, and Cooper Flagg went off for 2.
He also left Game No. 4 with a bum shoulder that was wrapped in ice after the game.
Flagg may ultimately be a great player, but he’s a kid playing against grown men who are only too eager to chew him up, and embarrass him whenever possible. On Monday night when the Mavs hosted the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder at the American Airlines Center, his age showed.
“It happens. He’s 18 playing against the defending champs’,” Mavs guard Max Christie said Monday night after the Mavs lost 101-94. “We have to lower the stress level for him. We have to make him a lot more comfortable than he is right now. He is young. He is inexperienced. We have to do a better job as teammates to make his life easier.”
Flagg said of his injury was a result of a “little contact,” and “I think it’s fine.”
Another thing that showed, Mavs forward Anthony Davis is a bad man, and right now he must think he’s back in New Orleans when most possessions were 1-on-5.
The Mavs are 1-3. They host their old coach, Rick Carlisle, and the defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night to close out the most depressing season-opening home stand for any NBA team.
Late in the third quarter, chants of “O-K-C!” rained at the AAC. This is after the Mavs showed on their video board the announcement that they will retire Mark Aguirre’s number at a ceremony in January; in the video, Mavs owner Patrick Dumont is featured, which prompted a good number of Mavs fans to scream, “Booooo!”
Check that. That’s not right. They were saying, “Booooooooooooooooo!”
But, unlike the Mavs’ loss to Washington in the second game of the season, there were no chants of “Fire-Nico!” So call this development tremendous progress.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. With 7:15 remaining in the fourth quarter, there was a small pocket of fans in the upper deck who sang that hit track from the spring. They only got through a bar or two.
If this is “the vision” that Mavs GM Nico Harrison talked about, this is a vision of basketball hell. Considering this team has Flagg, and was hosting the champion Thunder, there was a surprising number of empties at the AAC.
This is a team whose priority is defense, and it’s giving up an average of 118 points a game.
An entire offseason, winning the lottery and then selecting Flagg, has done minimal to a fan base that has not forgotten, and not quite ready to forgive The Trade. But when the Mavs got back into Monday night’s game with a nice fourth-quarter run to make things interesting in the final minutes, this fan base sounds like it is itching to move on.
It’s hard to move on when your team isn’t winning. It’s hard to move on when Luka Doncic with his “revenge bod’” in L.A. has made it his mission to punish Harrison, and Dumont, for trading him to the Lakers back in February.
No one expected the Mavs without Kyrie Irving to be a contender, or Flagg to be Larry Bird, but the way this team is constructed says “Play-In.”
Davis is still an All-Star. He scored 26 points with 11 rebounds on Monday night, and, when healthy, he’s one of the best bigs in basketball. Opposing teams can give him his numbers and trust that his help won’t help.
Veteran guard Klay Thompson hasn’t reached “Washed” levels, but he no longer appears to fit this team.
It would be great if the team could count on center Dereck Lively, but he continues to struggle to just get on the floor. He missed Monday’s game with a right knee bruise.
P.J. Washington is a nice role player on a solid team. He needs a friend who can create space.
“They’re doing everything that we’ve asked them to do,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said.
That’s good. That’s also troubling.
The point guard spot without Irving is, at best, a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel. D’Angelo Russell is their best option at point guard until Irving returns, and Russell can be a bit of a wild animal.
Then there is Flagg, who despite his snore start has the talent and maturity to do this. He needs time, and room, because he’s going to have nights like he did on Monday against OKC.
Kidd and the Mavs’ priority with Flagg is to not run him through the floor.
Until he comes around, a fan base that wants to move on may still be moved to sing a song that remains on the charts even if it came out in February.
This story was originally published October 28, 2025 at 9:19 AM.
