Mavericks hit lottery with chance to capture Flagg

By David Mullen

It should come as no surprise that a team owned by a casino conglomerate would beat the odds in a game of draft lottery keno. What is surprising is that the most vilified GM in professional sports may have just hit the jackpot and saved his job in the process. 

“Did I just read that correctly?,” said a friend of mine when he called me on May 12, the day the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Draft Lottery and was awarded the first pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Yes. It was true. Stunning, but true.

A lucky bounce of a ping pong ball got people talking about Mavericks’ basketball again.  

Dallas GM Nico Harrison, the target of fan ire since trading 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic to the hated Los Angeles Lakers for 32-year-old forward Anthony “Street Clothes” Davis, just received clemency from the governor. Harrison will live another day in his reclamation project to win back fan confidence, and he personally had nothing to do with the team’s good fortune. He wasn’t even in Chicago for the 2025 Draft Lottery. 

The team order for the NBA Draft is determined by a weighted lottery. The first pick traditionally goes to the teams with the worst regular season records. The Mavericks, who faded after the mid-season trade of Doncic, finished the 2024-25 season with a 39-43 record. Dallas was 6-14 in their last 20 games, finished 10th in the Western Conference and was relegated to the play-in series, which they ultimately lost to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Without Doncic, with the new acquisition Davis often injured and guard Kyrie Irving suffering a late season knee injury that will keep him out for nearly one year, the Mavericks’ future went from bright to total chaos in less than four months. And the upcoming draft was unlikely to make matters better in the short term.

The Mavs had a 1.8 percent chance of winning the first overall pick. A mid-first round draft pick, which the Mavs appeared to have secured, rarely turns around a franchised headed south.

The odds of the Mavs and San Antonio Spurs landing in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots was 1 in 1,000. Prior to February 1, the odds of the Mavs trading Doncic was 1 in 1,000,000 in the eyes of NBA fans. But with a favorable bounce from a group of numbered ping pong balls, Dallas has secured the overall No. 1 pick. What they do with the pick seems obvious.

The best player available in the upcoming draft is Duke forward Cooper Flagg. At 6-foot-9 with superior shooting skills, Flagg has been viewed as a potential No. 1 pick since leaving high school early, enrolling at Duke at age 17 and leading the Blue Devils to the 2025 Final Four in his freshman season.

A fresh-faced 18-year-old kid from Maine, Flagg captivated college basketball last season, not only  because of his skills but because he plays for Duke. As former Virginia coach Pete Gillen put it, “Duke is Duke. They’re on TV more than ‘Leave It to Beaver’ reruns.” The TV exposure added to Flagg’s popularity.

There is a lot to like about Flagg. He is blessed with size and can shoot from anywhere on the court. He emerged as a team leader. His style of play is infectious. He looks like a basketball player and securing the top pick to draft Flagg seems like a dream come true for Dallas.

In the NBA, the No. 1 overall pick provides power. Almost immediately, talk was that Harrison would trade the No. 1 pick in a package deal to acquire the Athens, Greece native and two-time MVP Giannis “Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo — rumored to be on the trading market — from the Milwaukee Bucks. 

With a salary cap to navigate, the Mavs could draft Flagg, sign him for the rookie contract of $13.8 million per season, trade him with players possessing higher contracts and make financial space for the Greek Freak. Antetokounmpo is signed through the 2027-28 season at an average of $60 million per year guaranteed.

Harrison wants to build the team around defense, and the 30-year-old Antetokounmpo (pictured) is a former NBA Defensive Player of the Year. With a healthy Antetokounmpo, Davis, Dereck Lively II, the Mavs would have the best front court in the NBA for a couple of years.    

According to ESPN, Mavericks’ governor Patrick Dumont, part of the Sands Casino family and son-in-law to majority stakeholder Miriam Adelson, who acquired the Mavericks in 2023, said that the first overall pick and the opportunity to draft Flagg as a “gift.” A gift in Las Vegas is a free coupon for the 24-hour buffet or tickets to see Carrot Top. Adding Flagg is more than a gift; it is a Godsend.

Flagg has all of the trappings of a franchise player; adding Flagg would take the focus off of the brutal Doncic trade that has the Dallas fan base disgusted with Harrison. While trading Doncic, the Mavericks also raised ticket prices for the 2025-26 season to further insult the loyal fans that have supported Dallas since they last had a first overall draft pick — forward Mark Aguirre — in 1981. 

The franchise’s national appeal returns to Doncic levels with Flagg. NBA fans will want to see Flagg on TV, like they did when he was at Duke. 

They will buy Flagg jerseys and hats with the Mavs logo on them.   

With Doncic gone, the Mavs desperately need a “face of the franchise,” something the defense-first Harrison didn’t seem to consider. An 18-year-old Flagg, not the veteran Antetokounmpo, fits the bill. 

Insiders have reported that the Mavs intend on drafting Flagg and not trading the pick. 

But casino people own the Mavericks today. They had better not be bluffing.

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