The Dallas Mavericks are likely headed into a rebuild of sorts in the coming years as they try to erase the bad taste of the Luka Doncic trade. Luckily for the Mavericks, they have a pretty good building block on the roster already in Cooper Flagg, and if it were up to him he would spend his entire NBA career with the franchise.
During a recent appearance on the ‘Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect’ show, Cooper Flagg cited former Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki as part of his inspiration to remain with the team for the duration of his NBA career. However, he did acknowledge that, that isn’t something that is necessarily within his control.
“To be that loved by a city, to have that much love and support from one place, I don’t think you can dream for anything else,” Flagg said. “That’s the ultimate goal, but like we were just talking about, it’s a business at the end of the day and it’s not going to be my decision.”
Flagg is coming off a sensational first year in the NBA in which he was named the league’s Rookie of the Year amid a close race with former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel. He appeared in 70 games at a little over 33 minutes per game.
He averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals with splits of 46.8 percent shooting from the field, 29.5 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 82.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Flagg certainly confirmed that he is a franchise cornerstone.
