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Cooper Flagg destination: Mavericks reportedly settle on plans for No. 1 overall pick
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Throughout the college basketball season, the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery was viewed as the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Long viewed as a generational prospect with a refined skill set and all-around game, Flagg has been cemented as the No. 1 pick for a long time.
On Monday night, the sweepstakes officially had a winner with the Dallas Mavericks, recently removed from the trading of superstar scorer Luka Doncic, earning the No. 1 overall pick in the lottery. It did not take long for conspiracies to surface with the Mavs entering the lottery with a 1.8% chance of landing the top pick in the draft.
By Tuesday morning, speculation and debates about what the franchise should do with the No. 1 overall pick quickly surfaced. On ESPN’s Get Up, the debate of whether or not a package for Giannis Antetokounmpo could be struck with the No. 1 overall pick and whether or not that would be a better use of resources by the franchise. Antetokounmpo recently became open to exploring his options outside of Milwaukee after being eliminated from the NBA playoffs.
However, no trading of the No. 1 overall pick seems likely at this point, according to a report from ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. According to that report, the Mavericks are not entertaining the prospects of trading away the pick for a proven superstar.
Even upon entering college with all the hype and expectations, Flagg lived up to it all while averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks for the Blue Devils. Flagg became a consensus All-American and captured the Naismith Award and Wooden Award as the top player in all of college basketball, leading Duke to the Final Four before a loss to Houston.
Now, it looks like Flagg will be able to trade one shade of blue and white for another as he embarks on his NBA journey.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
