Four pressing Mavericks questions with Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News

I had four Mavericks questions for Mike Curtis, Mavericks beat writer for The Dallas Morning News.

Question: How did you feel about Jason Kidd’s decision to use Cooper Flagg as the starting point guard? 

Answer: Everybody is going to say he’s not a natural point guard and he’s not. He’s a forward. But he has the ability to initiate an offense.

He has the ability to grab a rebound, come down the court and make an accurate read, and from everybody I’ve talked to from high school, even some at a professional level, they believe he’ll eventually get to a point where he’s handling the ball the majority of the time, in a way that kind of Giannis does, in a way the LeBron does.

But right now it is still early and he’s going to go through his share of growing pains.

I agree with the decision right now, because they’re in the season where they know Kyrie is not coming back for a while. We don’t know exactly when he’s coming back, so you give Cooper the ball, let him make his mistakes and it helps his development further down the line.

They also have the ability to put him back at the small forward spot and start D’Angelo Russell. 

Q: I wanted to ask you about Anthony Davis, who came into camp overweight. It got plenty of reaction from the media and on social media. Do you think it’s impacted his game early on?

A: When he came in during training camp, everyone was talking about how much weight he had gained. He pretty much said it’s normal. He doesn’t want to come in at his playing weight.

And because he had the eye procedure, he wasn’t going to be able to get a lot of work in during the offseason. But what we’ve seen so far wasn’t the version we saw of AD we saw in his first game as a Maverick on Feb. 8 against the Rockets and those two-and-a-half quarters where he looked unstoppable.

I think everyone is expecting to see that version, but if we think about it, that version was in February of last season, and it’s October, so I think over time, he’ll get better, but it’s not a concern to me at this point. 

Q: Do you have a sense of what this team will be, or is it too early to tell? 

A: Yeah, I think it’s too early to tell, but the main thing that stands out right now is how are they gonna look offensively? They’ve got all these long defensive guys when you look at Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, you have P.J. Washington, Cooper Flagg. All these guys excel at the defensive end, but where is the offense going to come from? Where is the 3-point shooting going to come from? 

Q: I’m curious, I know on social media you see plenty within the fanbase that is still bitter over the Luka Doncic trade. What’s the reality within the fanbase in regards to the trade going down?