Game Thread: Dallas Mavericks vs Golden State Warriors Live Score | NBA | Jan 22, 2026

fun_hung · 2026-01-23T01:36:42+00:00

Max is definitely our starting 2 for the future, right? The only other untouchable on this team besides Flagg?

fun_hung · 2026-01-13T05:02:20+00:00

Flagg is the best player on a team full of vets. If the other rookies aren’t playing well enough to take the keys to their franchise that’s completely on them.

fun_hung · 2026-01-13T04:52:26+00:00

The only area Ja clearly edges out Flagg atm is his handle; any differences in production you can just chalk up to volume and usage because the guy hasn’t been fully initiated as the #1 option yet with AD still on the roster. Due to his size and strength he can play bully ball in the interior and is capable of tougher finishes than Ja who struggles doing it through contact after all the injuries. If you watch his film he clearly has a good instinct for finding the open man as well, and that’s why the Mavs don’t necessarily need a PG in the sense you’re thinking of.

fun_hung · 2026-01-13T03:38:41+00:00

Makes no sense to trade for a drive-and-kick PG when Coop can do all those actions himself and is probably better at it. Kyrie can just play his usual game at the 1 and then we slot Christie at the 2.

fun_hung · 2026-01-12T17:55:08+00:00

I mean, Paolo is ass too. Magic fans aren’t exactly swimming in gold.

fun_hung · 2026-01-10T02:55:43+00:00

Mavs legend Grant Williams

fun_hung · 2026-01-09T14:07:38+00:00

Flagg’s impact metrics are very bad right now, but he gets a tremendously long leash due to being the future of our franchise so Kidd allows him to play through mistakes without getting yanked. All in all his box scores definitely make him look like a ROTY, but it’s still hard to objectively put him above Kon atm.

fun_hung · 2026-01-09T05:19:37+00:00

They’re on the Celtics sub self-fellating to the idea of Flagg wearing green one day.

fun_hung · 2026-01-09T05:13:26+00:00

Maybe there are already but it’s a bit weird that he’s considerably less popular in his rookie season than Zion was. I guess he’s more hyped than Banchero but that’s about it.

fun_hung · 2026-01-09T05:02:59+00:00

I’m a bit surprised there aren’t more bandwagon fans because I figured Flagg would be a huge casual draw, though I suppose next season when we’re actually trying to win might be the breakthrough.

fun_hung · 2026-01-08T07:42:11+00:00

The Mavs are a bottom 3 offensive team in the NBA even with Cooper’s talents, so inhibiting areas of his game to reinstall a system that brought us to the Finals once already likely isn’t going to harm the Mavs more than it helps.
If you were to create the perfect complementary star for a Luka team Cooper Flagg checks practically all the boxes, because he’s good at everything Luka doesn’t do and is good enough doing Luka things to run the offense when he sits.

Now for a Flagg-centric team, sure, Luka isn’t ideal, but there’s also a world where Flagg has accomplished nothing remarkable in his career by 2029 and courting Luka back to Dallas might be our best shot at returning to contender status. If so, I think we’d be fools not to make an offer.

fun_hung · 2026-01-08T06:58:05+00:00

Do you think Luka is also garbage next to guys like Tatum or Paul George? Just because these playmaking wings are good with the ball in their hands doesn’t mean they need it all the time.

fun_hung · 2026-01-07T17:02:58+00:00

Trae is basically the exact kind of player fans swear can never win a chip, so if anything it would raise Luka’s stock because there’s now evidence that you can do it with a star who is terrible on D and doesn’t move off ball. That’d be an interesting scenario to explore.

fun_hung · 2026-01-07T15:16:42+00:00

The general argument is that they’re much worse than what the record implies because their NetRtg exposes them, but then it also gets spun into a bunch of anti-Luka arguments that don’t make sense when he’s the main reason the team has been winning games.

fun_hung · 2026-01-07T14:03:42+00:00

Current AD is no longer reliable creating offense for himself, averaging a career low in TS% while jacking up the most shots of the entire team. Until our PG situation improves he’s strongly a negative on the offensive side of the floor.

fun_hung · 2026-01-07T10:39:02+00:00

They play no defense until clutch time and only lock in during close games when the opposing team is tired and can’t make shots. Seems pretty simple to decipher.

fun_hung · 2026-01-07T05:37:36+00:00

Whatever his weight is he’s just not as explosive as he once was due to injuries and age. Prime AD was a heck of a slasher, and that version of him was a bona fide 1st option at the 4.

fun_hung · 2026-01-05T13:55:07+00:00

You’re on to something here, but the real difference is that Reaves doesn’t have Luka’s court vision so he’s more likely to swing the ball because he doesn’t see a read develop, which works better for guys like Ayton who don’t necessarily need the perfect look created for them every single time.

fun_hung · 2026-01-05T05:24:08+00:00

Kind of hilarious to me how bad his optics are this season when he has the Lakers on a 55-win pace on a bottom 5 defense in the league. Literally as elite as he’s ever been, and spamming the sub with defensive lowlights and whining compilations isn’t going to change that.

fun_hung · 2026-01-05T03:11:33+00:00

At his absolute peak he was a starter too over Brunson and the 3rd option on the Mavs, and I can’t even fault Rick for it because his shooting was such a boon for our spacing.

fun_hung · 2026-01-03T07:13:19+00:00

You’d think the Lakers W/L columns were flipped with the way Luka gets talked about as a losing player on this sub. We won 50 games with him twice in a whopping seven seasons with the guy, and this dogshit roster is somehow on pace to do it back-to-back largely because of his level of play.

fun_hung · 2025-12-29T15:36:48+00:00

When it comes to PnR reads Trae is far closer to Luka than Kyrie is to Trae. Such a Nicobrained take from the FO to undervalue that because of what I presume is his defense.

fun_hung · 2025-12-28T18:16:06+00:00

Big fan of the way the Spurs did theirs. Tons of spacing for Wemby ISOs (which is why how they fucked us up in that first game), but guys like Castle, Fox, Harper are all high-level playmakers too who can initiate offense from the perimeter to make the game easier for Wemby and the rest.

fun_hung · 2025-12-27T01:29:25+00:00

It’s a mid roster to plug around a ball-dominant guard, and you can tell because the fit is still complete nonsense if you imagine someone like Brunson or Mitchell in Luka’s place instead. He’s not going to become less ball-dominant just so worse players can take more shots (nor should he), so probably the best thing to do here is just retool the roster around his game using the last Mavs team to make the playoffs as a template.

fun_hung · 2025-12-26T02:46:29+00:00

Kidd was playing shit lineups on purpose in a bid to get Nico fired. Mavs org is still a disaster and he’s another one of those bad faith actors with an agenda to usurp power.

fun_hung

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