The first time the Dallas Mavericks played the Miami Heat this season, Cooper Flagg started out slowly: just six points through three quarters, making only three of the nine shots he took, with three turnovers in 24 minutes. And then, with the Mavs down by seven and about nine and a half minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the 2025 NBA Draft’s No. 1 overall pick checked back in … and, suddenly, he was damn near everywhere.

Dallas’ comeback effort came up short, but the then-18-year-old’s closing kick — six points, four boards, two assists, a steal and relentless activity in those final nine-and-a-half minutes — made an impression.

“He’s not scared of the moment,” star Heat center Bam Adebayo told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “A lot of guys would move to the corner when there’s two minutes left in a close ball game … he was going to get the ball. He’s growing up faster than people think.”

Including, maybe, the Heat. When the two teams played again a week and a half later, Flagg scored a team-high 22 on 9-for-13 shooting in a 10-point Mavericks win.

This, as much as anything, has been the story of Flagg’s rookie season, which passed the halfway mark this week as he played key roles in wins over the slumping Knicks and injury-rocked Warriors. The campaign continues Saturday with what ought to be a pretty interesting nationally televised home game against the Los Angeles Lakers — nearly one year removed from the gobsmacking dead-of-night deal that shipped Luka Dončić to L.A.

Trading Luka for Anthony Davis removed the cornerstone on which the Mavericks franchise was built, precipitating Dallas’ downfall as a putative championship contender and beginning Nico Harrison’s slow march to the exit at the American Airlines Center. It also created a need for a new cornerstone — one better positioned for the task than Davis or Kyrie Irving, both on the wrong side of 30 and often (andcurrently) on the wrong side of the injury report.

That vacuum has been filled, thanks to a staggering amount of draft-lottery luck, by Flagg: one of the most highly touted prospects in a generation, one of the most productive teenagers the NBA has ever seen, and a preternatural talent that, as Adebayo put it, is growing up a hell of a lot faster than it would’ve seemed reasonable to expect.

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Flagg’s arrival can only do so much to abate and ameliorate the pain and trauma of the Dončić deal for a number of reasons, not least of which is the basic point that it’s really hard to replace an All-Star starter without downgrading. But even as the Mavs scuffle below .500 and near the bottom of the NBA in offensive efficiency, the presence of Flagg — rising up to the top of the rookie class, jousting with former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel and 76ers ace VJ Edgecombe in consideration for Rookie of the Year honors at the season’s midway point — gives Dallas fans something to grab hold of, a reason to believe that better days are ahead, sooner rather than later.

Flagg enters Saturday’s tilt against the Lakers averaging 18.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, with a true shooting percentage (which factors in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) of .554. Here is the list of rookies to average 18-6-4 on .550 TS% in NBA history:

• Oscar Robertson

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

• Magic Johnson

• Michael Jordan

I am not saying that Flagg is guaranteed to be one of the 10 best players in NBA history. I am just saying that what he has done so far puts him on a pretty cool friggin’ list. (And, for whatever it’s worth: None of those guys was doing that as a teenager.)

The only rookies this century to score as much, as efficiently and with as high a usage rate as Flagg has this season were Karl-Anthony Towns a decade ago and Victor Wembanyama two years back. The last two to do it before them: Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal.

Landing among such all-time elite offensive company would be impressive enough. Reaching that level on a team nearly denuded of high-level complementary offensive talent capable of deflecting defensive attention away from you is downright exceptional. (Not you, Naji Marshall. I think you’re high-level complementary offensive talent, and I always have.)

With Davis once again sidelined, still no timeline for Irving’s return, third-year center Dereck Lively II lost for the season and plenty of other contributors missing time, leaving the Mavericks as one of the most injury-ravaged teams in the NBA, Flagg — the youngest player in the NBA — has gotten a crash course in doing damn near everything there is to do on the basketball court. His introduction to the pro game saw him suddenly tasked with masquerading as a point guard; that, um, didn’t go so hot. Being thrown into the fire, though, gave the über-prospect an up-close-and-personal brush with failure the likes of which he never experienced — an encounter that Flagg says has paid dividends as he works his way through his maiden voyage through the senior circuit.

“I don’t know if I was ready for that or if I was ready to handle that right off the bat,” he told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I tried my best, and I mean, that’s not to say I can’t go back to it and can’t work on it and get better, but I think it’s just worked out where it’s been better to have somebody else helping out, relieving pressure. … It wasn’t perfect, but I think I learned a lot through that.”

Playing more frequently with fellow rookie Ryan Nembhard or reserve ball-handler Brandon Williams, Flagg has blossomed on the other side of the experiment, averaging more than 20 points and nearly 4.5 assists per game over the last 30 games while making 55% of his 2-point shots. The list of players doing that over the course of the full season looks like an All-NBA ballot.

And while shifting from the point back to the wing reduces his responsibility for bringing the ball up the floor and initiating offensive sets, it hasn’t exactly meant the kid’s suddenly getting spoon-fed. Flagg’s still shouldering a massive burden when it comes to generating his own scoring chances; according to NBA Advanced Stats, 56% of his baskets this season have been unassisted. Only 30 players in the NBA (minimum 20 games played and 20 minutes per game) are creating for themselves that often — a list that, when you filter for high-minute players like Flagg, is almost exclusively populated by All-Star-level lead guards and No. 1 offensive options. 

Flagg generates those looks for himself the hard way: by doing the engine-room work of lowering his head and his shoulder and bulldozing his way to the basket.

As The Ringer’s Kirk Goldsberry recently noted, Flagg leads all rookies in drives to the rim. In fact, he’s tied for 35th in the entire league, averaging as many forays to the cup per game as Edwards, and 19th in points scored per game off those drives, right behind Pascal Siakam and Donovan Mitchell. My colleague Steve Jones Jr. recently highlighted the right-handed Flagg’s adeptness at driving to his left, and the numbers bear that out: Flagg opts for his non-dominant hand on nearly 63% of his drives, according to Synergy Sports, producing more than one point per possession and shooting 51.1% on those left-hand attacks.

While Flagg’s ability to steamroll downhill to create for himself is impressive enough, one area of growth as he moves through the early stages of his career is getting more comfortable facilitating while handling the ball in the two-man game. Including possessions where he passes to a teammate who shoots, Flagg’s pick-and-rolls are producing 0.951 points per possession, according to Synergy. That’s not a particularly exceptional number in and of itself — about league average overall, and 68th out of 93 players finishing at least five plays per game out of the pick-and-roll.

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On the other hand, though — and it’s really worth hammering this point home — “about league average at generating points out of the pick-and-roll” is pretty damn good for a just-turned-19-year-old stepping immediately into a primary shot creation role that he’d never played before. And it’s also worth noting that, as with so much else about his game, Flagg seems to be getting better at it as the season goes along.

Over the past month, Dallas has scored 1.063 points per possession out of Flagg’s pick-and-rolls — a mark that would rank between what Mitchell and Jaylen Brown are generating out of the two-man game this season. The reads and passes are rarely breathtaking, but the court vision that he flashed in his fits-and-starts point guard days continues to produce good looks — either for himself after keeping a defender in jail and probing the paint, or for a teammate after the help leans too far in his direction — for an offense that desperately needs them:

Due in part to the relative lack of offensive threats around him, especially with Davis back on the shelf and Irving still in street clothes, teams have been sending more defensive attention at Flagg — loading the coverage toward him, trapping him as he comes off a ball screen, trying to heat him up and force the ball out of his hands. Learning how to patiently play through that kind of pressure takes time and repetition, with today’s pain bringing the promise of more efficient production tomorrow.

“He’s going each and every night,” Davis said last month, according to Christian Clark of The Athletic. “Each possession. They are trying to put their toughest defender on him every night. Try to take away his ability to put the ball on the floor and score. But he’s handling it very well. Making plays out of the double teams. It’s our job to capitalize when he makes the right play.”

The Mavs haven’t done that often enough this season, shooting just 39.7% off his passes, including a dismal 30.6% on 3-point looks, according to NBA Advanced Stats — in keeping with the sour overall flavor of an attack that ranks 25th or worse in 3-point attempts, makes and percentage, 28th in points per half-court possession, and 27th in overall offensive efficiency. It’s easy to imagine future Dallas rosters built around Flagg prioritizing perimeter shooting, looking to leverage the way that his size and skill enables him to penetrate into the teeth of the defense by flanking him with marksmen capable of cashing out after he drives, reads and kicks.

“The biggest thing that stands out to me is his athleticism,” a Western Conference scout recently told MacMahon of ESPN. “If I’m the GM here, I’m adding as much shooting as possible and building around him for a long time.”

Flank Flagg with floor-spacers and give him the green light to get downhill, and it seems like you’ve got the recipe for a damn good offense. The only fly in the ointment is Flagg’s own jumper: just 33.5% outside the paint and 28.3% from 3-point land, including a surprising 24.2% on supposedly easier catch-and-shoot triple tries. If he can’t iron out the wrinkles in his J, defenses will be able to duck under ball screens, sag off him and crowd the paint, clogging up driving lanes and making it more difficult for him to create for himself and others.

For what it’s worth, though, at least one pretty reliable source when it comes to shooting the ball isn’t too worried about the kid’s overall outlook …

… which seems smart, considering Flagg’s up to 36% from deep on nearly four attempts per game over the past month — yet another area in which he just continues to improve, night after night, game after game.

Just like his rebounding. Kidd recently challenged Flagg to be more active and aggressive on the glass.

“That’s one area we believe he can get better at,” Kidd said, according to Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News. “With time, he’ll figure that out.”

Flagg pulled down a season-high 11 boards in Thursday’s win over the Warriors. You don’t need that much time when you’re growing up faster than people think.

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As Redick said following a recent blowout loss, “I thought our low man was awful all night.”

Marcus Smart might be the Lakers’ best option at the point of attack, but the 31-year-old is four years and several injuries removed from being the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.

“There’s really no defense, no scheme we can do when we’re giving up offensive rebounds in crucial moments like we are, or guys are getting wherever they want on the court,” Smart conceded in December. “And there’s no help, there’s no resistance, there’s no urgency. So, it’s tough. And JJ is right: There’s really nothing he can do. It’s on us.“

And us isn’t good enough, defensively, to win a championship.

Which begs the same question Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison answered in the negative at this time last year: Can you build a champion around Dončić’s defense?

The short answer: Of course. (Spoiler alert: Nico was not right.)

A 24-year-old Dončić led the Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals with Kyrie Irving as his co-star. Daniel Gafford, Derrick Jones Jr. and P.J. Washington were the other three starters. That roster rated 18th on the defensive end during the regular season, hardly a juggernaut, and they came within three wins of a championship. Build the right team around Dončić — a roster full of two-way contributors — and obviously you can win a championship with him.

He is, after all, one in the handful of best basketball players in the world, averaging a league-leading 33.4 points per game, to go along with 8.7 assists and 7.8 rebounds a night.

All of which now leads us to the question at hand: Can the Lakers build a champion around Dončić? That is a far more complicated question to answer, and not just because their front office has made a series of missteps since winning the 2020 title. Then again, they did win that championship, they did acquire Dončić, and they did develop Reaves.

(Ownership also may have been messy, but that is a story for a different day.)

The presence of James and Reaves, along with Dončić, is a defensive problem. They are three of the most talented scorers in the game, and the team’s three best players, and the Lakers want them all on the floor together, only they are being outscored by 7.4 points per 100 possessions, almost as bad as this year’s Washington Wizards, when that is the case.

Even if James, the 41-year-old phenom, who has lost several steps defensively, has a frosty relationship with Lakers leadership — a report he did not flatly deny on Thursday — it would be awfully difficult for them to piece together a trade by the Feb. 5 trade deadline, especially one that returns them enough help defensively to patch together a contender.

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He is, however, a free agent at season’s end, and it is becoming increasingly less surprising that James and the Lakers may mutually part ways this summer. In fact, the franchise can clear as much as $54 million in salary cap space in July, according to Spotrac’s Keith Smith.

That gives the Lakers one chance — this summer — to spend on the roster around Dončić, before Reaves (assuming he opts out of his $15 million contract for next season) signs what could be something close to a maximum extension of his own. Then our question becomes: Can the Lakers build a champion around the defense of Dončić and Reaves?

Right now, the Lakers, when Dončić and Reaves are on the court without James, are outscoring opponents by 14.2 points per 100 meaningful possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass, operating at a historic level offensively and a top-three level defensively.

That is beyond encouraging. The idea, then: Use the Mavericks’ blueprint, only with Reaves in the Irving role as Dončić’s co-star, and find three two-way forces to play along with them.

Problem is: The 2026 free-agency class is a dud, at least in terms of defensive stalwarts. Might a 36-year-old Draymond Green decline his $27.7 million option for next season if more money awaited in L.A.? Does the oft-injured Robert Williams III interest the Lakers?

More likely, the Lakers will have to get creative, trying to trade players into their cap space, using their far-out future draft picks as bait, and possibly even dangling Reaves if a return is right. Can they get someone like Trey Murphy III or Herb Jones, or both, from the New Orleans Pelicans? Every other team in the league is in search of the same 3-and-D wings.

Our final question, then — another to come back to on another day — if we think we have sufficiently answered the one at hand (and of course the Lakers can build a champion around Dončić; any team can): Is Rob Pelinka the executive the Lakers want doing the job?

The Lakers are under new ownership, a group that did not hire Pelinka, and they will be both motivated to win and to spend, especially after investing $10 billion in the team.

Determination: Fact. The Lakers can build a champion around Dončić. Just not this season. It will take time — perhaps years’ worth — but the good news is they have it. Dončić is 26 years old and under contract through the 2028-29 season. (Thanksagain, Nico.)