If you were to make a list of things that could be registered as positives for the Dallas Mavericks in the year of 2025, at the top of the list would be them scoring the No. 1 overall pick and landing Cooper Flagg, by far the best college basketball player on the market.
And that’s pretty much the only thing you could list.
It all started in the beginning of February, when the trade of the century shocked the entire sports world, sending generational talent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in return for Anthony Davis.
And general manager Nico Harrison might as well have blown it off like it was nothing.
Sam Quinn of CBS Sports gave offseason grades to each NBA team, and the Mavs found themselves earning a disappointing “D-,” with them taking Flagg as the first overall pick likely preventing them from getting a straight-up “F.”
And Quinn didn’t hold back on his thoughts of Dallas sending their GM packing after everything that has occurred.
“The correct course here, especially with Kyrie Irving not to count on him playing this season, would have been to fire Nico Harrison, tear down this team, and completely realign around Cooper Flagg’s timeline,” Quinn wrote on his report.
“There are still valuable role players here, but those players do not make a coherent team. The roster is entirely unbalanced. Even if you’re trying to win, why on Earth do you need this many forwards and bigs? Is Cooper Flagg going to play out of position all year?”
Of course, the team will still have to balance the timelines of Kyrie Irving, Davis, and also Klay Thompson in addition to Flagg, but once they can nail down a surefire direction, they can find themselves back on the track to a championship, even with Harrison still calling shots.
