The financial implications of Mavericks winning the first pick in 2025 NBA Draft

The first pick of the 2025 NBA Draft comes with a salary of around four years, $62.7 million if they gave Flagg (or whoever else they draft first) the full 120% of the rookie scale. That's a cap hit of $13.8 million in year one compared to the $5.7 million had they stayed 11th.

If Kyrie Irving and Dwight Powell opt into their player options and the team signs a player to a minimum contract, that would push them over the second tax apron, per CBAMavs on X/Twitter. That could leave the team with some decisions to make this offseason.

P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford are each entering the final year of their contracts, and despite the team giving up first-round draft capital to bring them in a year ago, they may have to ship them out this offseason. They were big reasons why the team made the 2024 NBA Finals, but there's already a logjam in the frontcourt with Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II, and Gafford, and Flagg's best position long-term is likely power forward. But that's also P.J. Washington's best position, who was forced to play more small forward last season to mixed results.

The team is in desperate need of some guard play as Kyrie Irving returns from his ACL injury. Brandon Williams can be a fine backup, but Jaden Hardy's extension kicks in this year and he wasn't very good last season. He could be another player the team looks to move to give them some clearance, but he likely doesn't have much value. Caleb Martin is another player who could be on the move, but Nico Harrison may not want to give up on him so soon after trading two strong assets in Quentin Grimes and the 35th pick in this year's draft to get him.

If the team traded Luka Doncic because they didn't want to pay him the supermax and fight all of the tax apron penalties from it, it's hard to imagine they'll ever want to be above the second tax apron, unless it's completely unavoidable. But players like Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington should have enough value to both shed some salary and return good assets if they explore that route.