The Mavs should be better. Not 10-17 and 12th in the conference with Cooper Flagg right?
No Luka (enjoying L.A.), no Kyrie (Torn ACL), but still more was probably expected. Anthony Davis has only played 11 games this season due to injury. Klay Thompson has been servicable off the bench.
That’s not for lack of Cooper Flagg filling it up, though. The kid is only 18, (you can still call him a kid, right?) He’ll turn 19 on Sunday. Just 18 and he set the NBA record as the youngest player in league history to score more than 40 points in Monday night’s loss to the Jazz, when he scored 42. LeBron James set the previous record for most points by a teenager in the NBA when he scored 37 points as an 18-year-old in 2003.
Flagg is averaging over 27 points per game over the last seven games. Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel actually leads rookies in points per game at 19.0 to Flagg’s 18.4 for the season.
Last night Flagg was 13-of-27 and had a negative -9 +/- ratio in 42 minutes, and he took 20 free throws. So teams are fouling him; they can’t guard him. And he doesn’t have a ton of help around him. P.J. Washington is the other main offensive threat. Irving is not expected to return from an ACL injury he suffered in the spring until at least after the 2026 All-Star break. Davis could be traded.
So what of the Mavs, who are struggling to win games? They rank 8th in the NBA in team defense, but rank 26th in the league in offensive rating.
Kevin Durant said of the rook back in November, “I think that he’s going to be such a nightmare… that… he’ll be considered one of the best of all time.”
