On Tuesday morning, the Dallas Mavericks fanbase finally got what it's long been craving for — the firing of general manager Nico Harrison. Harrison set the Mavericks on this Luka Doncic-less path with his asinine decision to trade away their franchise cornerstone, and now they're struggling to the tune of a 3-8 start to the new campaign. The only silver lining to all of this is that the Mavs got another potential franchise-altering star in rookie Cooper Flagg after they won the 2025 NBA Draft lottery despite long odds (1.8 percent) of doing so.
Flagg has endured some struggles to begin his NBA career, but he appears to be coming into his own. He put up a career-high 26 points on Monday in a gut-wrenching 116-114 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, and he even set a record that rivals only LeBron James in the process — all while playing through a sprained thumb.
The Mavericks rookie has already downplayed this injury of his, saying that it should be nothing too serious moving forward. And it looks like the organization agrees with him. Flagg may be on the injury report with a thumb sprain, but he will be available to play for when they face the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday, according to the latest report on NBA.com.
Flagg's development will be of utmost importance to the Mavericks moving forward. He will be hailed as the team's savior, as the one who will bring them out of the trenches after inexplicably trading Doncic away, and it looks like his time is now.
Where do Cooper Flagg and Mavericks go from here?
With Harrison out, a fresh start should be what's in store for the Mavericks. The denial phase should be over; they messed up by trading Doncic away for an even more injury-prone Anthony Davis, and all that's left for them is to move forward with their new core.
But it might be best for the Mavs to simply play for lottery odds next year. The 2026 NBA Draft class is looking stacked, especially at the top, and pairing one of those ballyhooed prospects with Flagg could be their pathway out of this post-Doncic trade mess.
