{"id":180146,"date":"2026-03-06T12:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=180146"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:35:30","slug":"flagg-on-the-play-why-mavericks-rookie-is-wasted-at-point-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/03\/06\/flagg-on-the-play-why-mavericks-rookie-is-wasted-at-point-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Flagg on the Play: Why Mavericks Rookie is Wasted at Point Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Kidd is an excellent basketball coach. There is an argument to be made that he is second only to Rick Carlisle in the argument for the greatest Dallas Mavericks coach of all time. He has a couple of great, deep playoff runs to boast of and has proven to be elite at guard development. Both Luka Doncic<\/a> and Jalen Brunson<\/a> blossomed under the learning tree of Kidd and former assistant God Shammgod<\/a>. That should be no surprise to most, as Kidd has a strong argument to be the greatest NBA point guard of all time in his own right.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg<\/a>, however, is not a guard, yet he finds himself playing meaningful minutes as at the point. This is not a random decision from the Mavericks skipper, as the strong development of guard traits in forwards was a hallmark of his early coaching career, but the approach should be taken on a case-by-case basis. Cooper Flagg is not the case.<\/p>\n

Flagg on the Play: Why Mavericks Rookie is Wasted at Point Guard<\/h2>\n

During his time in Milwaukee as an assistant, Jason Kidd notably pushed Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> to PG. That worked out okay, right? Two MVPs, and a championship run that saw Giannis win Finals MVP.<\/p>\n

The recently acquired Khris Middleton<\/a> also played under Kidd. The Robin to Giannis’ Batman in that Bucks championship team. Even as his game declines, the fundamentals developed under Kidd remain the strengths of Middleton’s game. Shot creation and floor positioning are hallmarks of the veteran wing, evident in his play since joining the Mavericks. It’s clear that the Kidd strategy works, so why relent? Firstly, Flagg and Giannis aren’t comparable.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

It took Giannis four years in the league to surpass the scoring averages that Flagg is achieving in his rookie season, with 22.9 PPG in year 4 for Giannis compared to 20.3 PPG in year one for Coop. Two different beasts. Giannis is a product of elite development. Cooper is the result of immeasurable talent. The idea of playing Cooper out of position to make him comfortable anywhere on the court is bogus. He’s comfortable everywhere on the court as it stands. Playing him in a role where his natural skills aren’t as utilized and trying to develop him into a position that he will never play is a huge oversight.<\/p>\n

If we wanted to legitimately compare Flagg to another player in terms of skill set, it would be Kawhi Leonard<\/a>. Not rookie Kawhi, however, as if you turn to the statsheet, Flagg contributes as much if not more than Leonard in his two DPOY seasons in San Antonio. We already know what kind of player Flagg will be.<\/p>\n

It halts the development of the entire team<\/h3>\n

With Coop being the talent that he is, he is a nailed-on starter. Playing him at PG means somebody’s head has to roll. The Mavericks have four guards aged 23 and under on the roster, and no set starter at the position.<\/p>\n

Kidd’s development scheme around Flagg is hindering overall team development. Priority has to be on developing a strong backup for Kyrie Irving<\/a> in Dallas, as his absence has been the difference between success and dumpster fire this year. With limited draft capital in the near future, Kidd needs to plug that hole as cheaply as possible.<\/p>\n

Rookie point guard Ryan Nembhard<\/a> and his recent two-year deal<\/a> show some commitment to the cause, but the commitment needs to be shown with minutes on the floor. Nembhard, who led the NCAA in assists last season, fills the stat sheet in the limited time he has on the floor. If it’s not Ryan, it’s got to be somebody. There is a non-zero chance Kyrie sustains another major injury next year. The Mavs are one roll of the ankle away from having another disaster season in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Kidd is an excellent basketball coach. There is an argument to be made that he is second only to Rick Carlisle in the argument for the greatest Dallas Mavericks coach of all time. He has a couple of great, deep playoff runs to boast of and has proven to be elite at guard development. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5787,"featured_media":180162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,62],"tags":[48964,306,168,406,50024],"class_list":["post-180146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-ryan-nembhard"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180146"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180168,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180146\/revisions\/180168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}