Building The Perfect Mavericks Starting Five Around Cooper Flagg

Rookie year settled the big question: the Dallas Mavericks found their next franchise player in Cooper Flagg. What it didn’t settle is how to build around him, and the lazy answer is to just rebuild the Luka Doncic roster with a different guy in the middle.

That won’t work this time, even if they still have a bunch of those same pieces. Flagg and Doncic can both run a game, but they run it in completely different ways, and that gap should shape nearly every move the Mavericks make over the next few years.

Start with what Flagg actually did. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 70 games, shooting 46.8% from the field and 29.5% from three. Only one other rookie since Michael Jordan has led his team in total points, rebounds, assists, and steals, and it’s him. Dallas even had him bringing the ball up early in the season, which sped up his passing and gave him real reps running an offense, even if he kind of struggled at first.

Still, those 4.5 assists don’t mean Flagg is a Doncic-style creator waiting to happen. Luka is one of the best pick-and-roll passers the league has ever seen. He can deceive the ball defender, the big man, and the weak-side help all in one hand, then serve up dunks to the center on repeat, as he did with Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively.

Flagg is scary in a different way right now. He’s an all-around forward who rebounds and runs, punishes closeouts, bullies smaller guys, cuts without the ball, and creates out of secondary actions. And that 29.5% from three tells you exactly why spacing has to be part of the plan.

So no, I’m not just picking the five most talented guys I can find. I’m picking four specific types of players who make his life easier without sanding down what makes him special.

Point Guard: The Defensive Floor General

Not another star who needs 20 shots and the ball for 18 seconds a possession. That’s how you end up with the exact problem you’re trying to escape, a Flagg who spends the night waiting on somebody else to organize everything.

But I also don’t want Flagg dribbling it up, calling every set and manufacturing every look while he’s still growing as a playmaker. The middle ground is a guard cut from prime Jrue Holiday cloth, with a little Derrick White and healthy Lonzo Ball mixed in. Someone who can cover the other team’s best perimeter guy, get the ball across half-court cleanly, run the first action, make the simple read, and hit enough threes that nobody sags off him. He doesn’t need 22 points a night. He needs to make everything easier for Cooper.

The defensive side matters more than people think. I don’t want Flagg chasing 6-foot-2 guards around screens for 35 minutes just because he can. Put him on wings and forwards instead, where his size, instincts, and help defense do real damage at the rim. A point-of-attack stopper takes the small, annoying assignments, and Flagg gets to roam behind the play like a free safety. That’s a much better use of his versatility.

White’s a good modern example. Even in a down shooting year in 2025-26, he put up 16.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists and stayed at an All-Defensive level. Prime Holiday would be the dream version, a guy who could guard basically anyone, play on or off the ball, and never needed the offense bent around him.

That’s one of the reasons why the Kyrie Irving pairing is such a mystery and teams keep monitoring his situation. The combination of age, contract, and unknown fit could lead to a trade down the road, although I’ll give Kyrie this: Flagg will need someone to step up and score when he can’t. There’s no better choice than Irving in that department, so I wouldn’t just move him for the sake of it. Maybe they thrive together better than expected.

Shooting Guard: The Low-Touch Two-Way Shooter

This is the easiest spot to fill on paper. Get an elite shooter who can do something useful with the ball in under two seconds without killing the flow of the offense. Shooters are always available, but elite ones who can also play defense? That’s a different conversation.

Desmond Bane is basically the blueprint. He averaged 20.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists last season on 48.4% shooting overall and 39.1% from three, and he did it without taking over the offense. He curls off screens, catches and shoots, relocates when Wagner or Banchero drives, attacks a closeout, and can get himself a good shot in one or two dribbles.

Kon Knueppel is the other name I keep coming back to, mostly because he already played next to Flagg at Duke and showed how naturally the fit works. He averaged 18.5 points as a rookie and hit an absurd 42.5% from three on serious volume. That’s the kind of gravity I want on the floor with Cooper for the next decade.

I’m not saying it has to be Bane or Knueppel specifically. It’s the style Dallas should be hunting every time it looks at guards. Give me a 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6 guy who can hold his own on defense, shoot around 40% from three, move without the ball, and score 15 to 20 a night without a play being called for him every time. Klay Thompson would’ve been amazing at his best, but the Mavs version was simply underwhelming.

The 3-and-D profile matters even more because Flagg isn’t a reliable shooter yet. He hit 29.5% as a rookie, so the guys next to him have to create the space while he works inside the arc. If Cooper gets downhill and the defense has to decide whether to send help off a knockdown shooter, that’s already a win.

Small Forward: Cooper Flagg

I’d keep him nominally at the three, though his actual job should be a lot harder to pin down. New coach Dusty May has already said he plans to use Flagg all over the floor, and that’s exactly right. Boxing a 6-foot-9 guy who can score, rebound, pass, and guard nearly everyone into one traditional position defeats the entire point of having him.

On offense, I want a little bit of everything instead of one thing 50 times a night. Let him grab a defensive board and push in transition, where guards can’t handle his size. Let him attack from the wing against a scrambling defense. Use him as a screener for the point guard, even scarier if that guy is Kyrie himself. Give him touches at the elbow, and yes, let him run pick-and-roll when the game calls for it. He averaged 4.5 assists to just 2.3 turnovers as a 19-year-old, so a high-level creator is clearly in there. Dallas just shouldn’t force him into full-time point guard duty because he’s capable of it.

The freedom might be even bigger on defense. With a good guard taking the quickest perimeter player and a real rim protector behind him (that Dallas boasts with Naji Marshall at the two and Gafford at center), Flagg can switch across wings, help at the rim, jump passing lanes, and clean up everybody’s mistakes. That’s where he can become one of the most impactful defenders in the league.

The LeBron comparison works here, but not the way you’re thinking. I’m not saying Flagg becomes LeBron. I’m saying the best way to use a forward this versatile is to give him options. The lineup shouldn’t tell Cooper which position he plays. It should let him decide what the game needs, and everything else gets built from there.

Power Forward: The Low-Touch Stretch Four

Dallas is probably closest to solving this spot, because the roster already has a few different versions of what I want.

The simplest is P.J. Washington. He put up 14.2 points and 7.0 rebounds last season, defends bigger forwards, doesn’t need many touches, and has shown in earlier years that he can shoot it. The 32.5% from three last season wasn’t great, but the overall profile is what I’m after: a forward who defends, rebounds, stands outside the paint, and makes teams pay for leaving him alone. Given how many bodies Dallas has upfront, he could be traded eventually.

In that scenario, well, Santi Aldama might be the more interesting offensive fit. At 7-foot, he gives you more size while still living comfortably on the perimeter, and he averaged 14.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on 35.0% from three last season, which is exactly the type of mix Dallas should keep chasing here. Zaccharie Risacher is another option if his development keeps going. He’s 6-foot-8, only 21, and shot 36.8% from three last season before landing in Dallas.

I don’t want a power forward who needs post touches or hangs around the center inside the paint, because Flagg’s biggest weapon might end up being his ability to get downhill on almost anybody. Two defenders waiting at the rim every time he drives just makes his life harder for no reason.

The four should guard bigger players so Flagg isn’t wrestling with power forwards every night, rebound enough that the lineup doesn’t shrink, and shoot well enough that his man can’t leave him. Give me 14 points, seven rebounds, solid defense, and 36% to 38% from three with almost no usage, and I couldn’t care less if he ever makes an All-Star team.

Center: The Rim Protector Who Pulls Defenders Outside

This is where I’d make the biggest philosophical shift from the Luka era. The perfect center for Doncic isn’t automatically the perfect center for Flagg.

Gafford and Lively worked with Luka because he can turn almost any high pick-and-roll into a dunk. He has the patience and vision to keep the opposing center guessing where to cover, deceive the low man into the skip pass, and then drop the lob at exactly the right moment. A center who couldn’t shoot wasn’t a big deal in Dallas because Doncic can turn vertical spacing into a weapon.

Flagg isn’t that kind of pick-and-roll creator, at least not yet. So I’d rather open the floor for him. Chet Holmgren is the dream prototype, even though there’s basically no universe where OKC hands him to Dallas. Still, a player like Chet is what I want: 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks last season on 55.7% from the field and 36.2% from three. That’s exactly why this kind of center changes everything. He protects the rim at one end and drags the other team’s center away from it at the other.

Myles Turner has been living in that lane for years, blocking shots and hitting threes, and he made 38.3% from deep last season. Jaren Jackson Jr. at the five would give you a more mobile defensive version. Naz Reid tilts toward offense and shooting. All of them represent the same idea.

I want a center who protects the paint without clogging it. If Flagg has a slower forward isolated on the wing, I want the middle wide open. If the defense stashes its center on Dallas’ five, that guy should be standing 25 feet from the basket and forced into a decision: stay home and Flagg gets the rim, or help on Flagg and the Mavericks get an open three.

Doncic never needed that kind of spacing quite as badly, because he created his own with passing and step-back threes. For Cooper, you build it with personnel.

Putting It Together

So the finished lineup isn’t about five specific names. Dallas doesn’t need to spend the next few years chasing four exact players who probably aren’t available anyway. It needs to understand which types of players make Flagg better.

Point guard: the Holiday prototype, a steady floor general who defends the ball and doesn’t need to score 25. Shooting guard: the Bane or Knueppel type, a legit shooter who scores without eating up touches. Flagg in the middle of it all as the do-everything creator. Then a four who gives him shooting, defense, and size without asking for the ball, and at center, the hardest piece to find: a real paint protector who can also step out and hit enough threes to keep the lane open.

The good news is that Dallas already owns some of this. Washington, Aldama, and Risacher give the Mavericks several options at forward, and Gafford and Lively are still good centers even if they aren’t the exact long-term fit, same as Kyrie at point guard, which we’re about to see how that goes. The front office has also been clear about direction. Masai Ujiri has said every decision will be future-based because Dallas has a 19-year-old generational talent to build around.

That’s important because the Mavericks don’t have to finish this roster tomorrow, I mean, Flagg is only entering Year 2, so Dallas has time to learn who he becomes before making every big move. But the basic formula is already visible.

Don’t ask Cooper Flagg to become Luka Doncic 2.0. Give him a guard who can steady things when he needs help, surround him with shooting, let him work inside, keep the paint open, and put a real rim protector behind him.

Get those pieces right, and Flagg spends the next few years becoming the best version of himself, instead of chasing the star who came before him.