When NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum held up the Dallas Mavericks logo Monday night, announcing they had turned their 1.8% chance into the No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg’s reaction was understated. To put it mildly. The presumptive No. 1 pick in this draft, he seemed as stunned as everyone else Dallas was going to be his new home, but also he was not reacting excitedly like Victor Wembanyama when he found out he was headed to San Antonio.
Flagg admitted was as caught off guard by the outcome as everyone else, but then spoke highly of Dallas, talking to reporters at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. Quotes via Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal:
“It was a crazy draft lottery. It was a cool experience to be there and go through that experience…
“I’m grateful to get this opportunity, or any opportunity to hear my name called on draft night. I’m just really excited for this whole experience. Not everybody gets to go through this, so I just feel really blessed. As far as Dallas goes, they’ve got a lot of really good pieces.”
Among those pieces is fellow Duke player Dereck Lively II.
“To be able to learn from D-Live—that’s pretty cool. So I think it would be a really cool opportunity.”
Flagg also talked about what he learned being on the USA Select team last summer, practicing and scrimmaging against the USA Basketball team that won gold in the Paris Olympics. He got to see up close how hard the best in the game work and how much they prepare, mentally and physically, and he said he took that to heart.
With a front line of Anthony Davis, Lively and Flagg, plus Kyrie Irving (eventually, he will miss most if not all of next season after tearing his ACL in March), there is a path to the Mavericks being a dangerous team — if they can get everyone healthy. The lottery ping-pong balls also bailed maligned GM Nico Harrison out: One of the biggest flaws of the Luka Doncic trade was that Davis was six years older, and with that, Dallas got a lot older. Flagg is 18 and gives the Mavericks a clear path to the future.
Flagg is excited about that future, no matter what his face looked like seconds after the announcement.
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