Shocked – that’s how many basketball fans, and even players, reacted to the results of Monday night’s NBA Draft lottery announcement.
The Dallas Mavericks entered the night with a 1.8% chance at the top pick after finishing the season 39-43, but came out on top securing the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. All this only three months after Dallas traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
So what’s to be made out of all of this?
Grant Afseth, a senior writer covering the Mavs and Dallas Wings for dallashoopsjournal.com joined the Standard to discuss. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Walk us through what happened on Monday night. How did Dallas end up on top?
Grant Afseth: Yeah, a lot of unlikely outcomes led to it.
For starters, there was a tiebreaker for the Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls to get the 11th overall odds to get the lottery chance for the first overall pick. It was resolved with a coin flip.
The Mavericks ended up winning that coin toss, getting the 11th best odds, and there was only a 1.8% chance from there that they were able to get the first pick. It came down to the right ping pong ball, and they were able to secure the first pick.
So a lot of improbable stuff occurred for that sequence of events.
Holy moly. Okay, so the Mavs are anticipated to select Duke star Cooper Flagg. Is that right?
That is correct.
Tell us a little bit more about Cooper Flagg.
Yeah, he’s a player that for multiple years, many teams have really anticipated being a future generational talent. They’ve positioned themselves to rebuild, to hope to get that type of a talent. And now, the Maverick’s are gonna be able to add him.
He’s someone who’s about like 6-foot-9, really athletic, really talented. Like he’s a great defensive player as well. So just checks a lot of boxes that any team would love to have in a player to build around.
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I think a lot of Mavs fans would love to have heard you say, “yeah, he’s going to be what will fill that hole left by Dončić. I mean, fans are still reeling from that trade. What does this news do for the fan base in Dallas, do you think?
Yeah, I definitely think it sparks a lot of renewed interest.
I think a lot of the connection with Luka Dončić as the former cornerstone was the ability to see his journey from the very start. They’re getting Cooper Flagg when he’s 18. He’s not even going to turn 19 years old until December 21.
So being there from the very beginning of that journey – as opposed to getting great players who are already well-accomplished, but are in their thirties, like a Kyrie Irving or an Anthony Davis – it’s just a different connection for fans to have that new relationship with a player from the start to finish. And they’re gonna get a lot of that where five years into Cooper’s career, he’s still gonna be 23 years old.
We should also note that the Dallas Wings, the WNBA team, also got the top draft pick this year securing UConn star Paige Bueckers. So their season must be looking good, right?
Yeah, definitely. I think it’ll still be kind of a growing process for Paige with the Wings in their first season together, where they’re establishing that foundation. But definitely a lot of excitement.
They already have, you know, a two-time All-Star Game MVP in Arike Ogunbowale in the backcourt next to Paige. So there’s a lot solid pieces around Paige to step into.
But definitely one of those exciting situations where you’re the first pick and really it’s up to how quickly she adjusts to the league to determine how successful they can be in that first year and not like a devoid of talent where it’s like this No. 1 pick who has to carry a bad team.
So definitely think there’s plenty of reason to be intrigued by the team that the Wings have this season – where they may not be a playoff team, but they have a lot to look forward to in the long term.
