There might be hope after all for the Dallas Mavericks. Their long-term outlook was the stuff of horror stories, as after trading away Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick as well as seeing Kyrie Irving tear his ACL shortly after, the Mavericks went all the way from the team that made it to the 2024 NBA Finals to a team projected to tread water. But now, the Mavs have gone from it is so over to we are so back in a hurry after overcoming their 1.8 percent odds to win the first overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft.

This is an incredible turn of luck for a Mavericks franchise that has faced so much adversity ever since they fatefully decided to trade away Doncic. There is major jubilation among members of the Mavericks brass, with CEO Rick Welts not sugarcoating whatsoever how much this draft lottery triumph means to the team.

“It just feels like a reversal of fortune, like of epic proportions to us,” Welts said, via NBA TV.

Many have put their conspiracy hats on and wondered if winning the first overall pick in the draft with Cooper Flagg as its grand prize was the league's way of rewarding the Mavericks after they traded Doncic to Los Angeles, one of the league's biggest markets.

Whatever the case may be, the Mavericks falling upwards goes to show that everything can go wrong for a franchise and yet they will still get a second chance over and over again. Life in the NBA is far from fair, as Kevin Durant so succinctly put, but Dallas will not care now that they have a chance to build a contending team with, presumably, Cooper Flagg being the team's flag-bearer for the next decade or so.

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Drafting Cooper Flagg is a no-brainer for the Mavericks, but keeping Luka Doncic was either, so there are no guarantees that they make the obvious move. The Mavs now have a path forward back to sustainable contention, provided, of course, that Flagg blossoms into the game-changer many believe he will be.

The Mavericks have a roster built to win now, and it might do Flagg a world of good for him to be in an environment that wants to win right from the start of his career. He won't have to bear the burden just yet of lifting the franchise, as he has Anthony Davis (and Kyrie Irving once he recovers) to do that for him to start.