After Drafting Cooper Flagg, It May Be A Quiet Summer For The Mavs

D'Angelo Russell may be the only other domino to fall

On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks franchise changed forever: They finally selected Duke University phenom and consensus #1 pick Cooper Flagg. Four and a half months after trading away Luka Dončić, the Mavs hopefully have their future franchise player again. It also may only be one of two significant moves for the Mavericks this summer.

The Mavericks entered Draft Night with a full 15-man roster and two upcoming free agents in Spencer Dinwiddie and Dante Exum. After drafting Flagg, that number is temporarily up to 16 players, however after free agency starts on June 30, the Mavs will have one open roster spot. Thanks to Kyrie Irving’s team-friendly 3-year $119 million contract extension that he plans to sign, the Mavs will be able to unlock the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception. By all accounts, the Mavs plan on using that slot to fill out their final roster spot with a starting-caliber point guard who can fill in for Irving while he recovers from a torn ACL. Recent reports increasingly suggest the player they end up signing will be 10-year veteran point guard D’Angelo Russell (More on that in later post). Per NBA insider

Marc Stein

, the Mavs remain mutually interested in re-signing Exum. However their roster crunch is a significant obstacle to doing so, as after signing Russell or another point guard, they will be out of roster spots.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the Mavs could then salary dump one of their end-of-bench players (Dwight Powell, Jaden Hardy, & Olivier-Maxence Prosper). However with the Brooklyn Nets being the only team possessing cap space, the market for salary dumps will be competitive, as the Nets will have maximum leverage. It will require attaching assets as deal sweeteners, something the Mavericks do not have much of. For context, they own their 2026 1st Round Pick, but because they do not control their 1st Round picks from 2027-2030, they cannot trade it. Even if they were able to, that is a steep price to pay just to free up a roster spot. The Mavs also do not own a 2nd Round pick until the year 2030, so it may be wise to hold onto that until absolutely necessary. Waiving Powell, Hardy, Prosper, or really anyone else on their roster doesn’t figure to be a practical option either, as the Mavs are still paying JaVale McGee after they cut him following his disastrous 2022-23 season.

The Mavericks conceivably could shuffle around the players under contract on their roster. With a glut of big men and wings, there will undoubtedly be a rotation crunch next season where veterans like Max Christie, Naji Marshall, Caleb Martin, or even Klay Thompson do not get enough playing time simply because there are too many overlapping skills on the roster. With Flagg seemingly slated to start at shooting guard, and with the commitment to PJ Washington playing small forward, Christie, Marshall, Martin, and Thompson will all be fighting for minutes. The center rotation is also crowded with Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II, and Daniel Gafford, fresh off his own contract extension all commanding meaningful minutes. Of all the players mentioned, Washington and Gafford seem to be the most logical trade candidates, and yet, the Mavs have publicly signaled their desire to have both on the roster next season. None of the other veterans here would have quite the trade value those two do. With the Mavs currently above the 1st apron, sign-and-trades are also out of the question. And with the aforementioned difficulty of salary dumps, we’re back where we started.

It’s important to note that we are still early in the offseason and things can change between now and when the NBA season starts in October. We don’t know what opportunities may suddenly arise in that time. That being said, the Mavs roster is constructed in a way that doesn’t give them a ton of flexibility to maneuver this offseason; D’Angelo Russell may very well be their only veteran addition. Fans hoping for a bigger reset may have to wait until next summer for that to happen. For now, the Flagg has been captured, and that’s reason enough for us to celebrate after a trying nearly five months.