The start of Cooper Flagg’s NBA career hasn’t gone super smoothly. Flagg has experienced some individual growing pains while accumulating to professional play, and the Dallas Mavericks have sputtered out of the gate.
Through two weeks of action, the Mavs sit at the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference with a 2-6 record, and it sounds like the losing is already taking a toll on the top overall pick from the 2025 NBA Draft.
“For me it’s the most I’ve lost since, you know, I think ever,” Flagg said following Dallas’ 101-99 loss to New Orleans on Wednesday night. “So it’s obviously a lot different. And you just have to adapt to just playing a lot more games and get used to that.
"I wouldn’t say anybody is happy," he added. "Guys obviously are trying to stay levelheaded and know that we got a lot more games to go and it’s still really early. But just speaking personally, it’s not fun to just keep losing and losing games.”
Like Flagg said, it’s still very early in the season, so it’s not time for the Mavericks to hit the panic button yet, but they need to start stringing some wins together if they don’t want to fall too far behind in a competitive Western Conference. If they sink too far in the standings, it will be exceedingly difficult to climb back up.
Offense, specifically, has been an issue for Dallas early in the season. The Mavs have the fifth-highest rated defense in the entire league, which is very respectable. But, they’re dead last in offensive rating. The Mavericks are scoring just 106.3 points per game as a team, which is also last in the league. For comparison, the league-leading Houston Rockets are scoring 127.4 points per performance.
Individually, Flagg is averaging 13.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 32.7 minutes per game, but he’s shooting just 38 percent from the floor and 30 percent from long range. He obviously needs to improve his efficiency, but that should come with time and experience.
Meanwhile, Dallas should be getting Anthony Davis back from a calf injury in the very near future. Perhaps with his return the Mavericks will be able to overcome their slow start and get back on track before it’s too late.