By Geoffrey Latayan
The Dallas Mavericks, who are only months removed from trading franchise player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, have bucked the odds and won the right to pick top college prospect Cooper Flagg.
With only a 1.8% chance of winning – the fourth-largest underdog to win the annual event since it was first held in 1985 – the Mavericks beat San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Charlotte in the lottery and will have a chance to secure another franchise player in next month’s draft.
Dallas will have the opportunity to strengthen its line-up by selecting the Duke standout, who won a ton of awards in college, including the national player of the year.
The 6-foot-9 Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game in 37 outings with Duke, who made it to the Final Four only to lose by three points to Houston.
Dallas gains top pick for first time since 1981
The Mavericks secured their first overall pick since 1981 and their first-ever No.1 pick since the draft lottery was instituted in 1985.
Back then, Dallas used the No.1 pick to get Mark Aguirre, who played for seven seasons with the team before getting traded to Detroit in the 1988-89 season.
The DePaul standout averaged 29.5 points per game in his third season with the Mavericks, ending up second to top scorer Adrian Dantley, who racked up 30.2 ppg in the 1983-84 season.
Dallas hopes to get a similar outcome with Flagg, a generational talent from Newport, Maine, who can play both guard and forward with ease.
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Mavs look to emulate WNBA counterpart in selecting best available draft talent
Dallas’ draft lottery win came a month after their WNBA counterparts, the Dallas Wings, cashed in on their No.1 pick to get UConn guard and former national player of the year Paige Bueckers.
Bueckers was coming off a successful NCAA women’s basketball season, where she helped the Huskies beat defending champions South Carolina in the final to give UConn its 12th national title and the first since 2016.
She subsequently made her WNBA debut on Friday, playing 30 minutes for the Wings, who were beaten 99-84 by the Minnesota Lynx.
The new signing gave a good account of herself in her first game as a professional player, tallying 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one block.
The Mavericks now hope that they’ll crack the jackpot in Cooper Flagg as he is set to join veteran superstars Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and Klay Thompson in bouncing back from a 39-43 record, which placed them 10th in the Western Conference last season.
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