The Dallas Mavericks are on a mission to rebuild around Cooper Flagg and any suspicion about their vision for the future has become apparent – get younger and get more athletic. Beginning with the selection of Morez Johnson, Jr. with the #9 pick in the Draft last month and continuing through to the trade for Zaccharie Risacher this week, Dallas has done just that.
Less than six months ago, The Mavericks fielded a team that included Anthony Davis (age 33), Dante Exum (age 31) and D’Angelo Russell (age 30).
They shipped out those players (and Jaden Hardy; 24) for Khris Middleton (age 34) and Marvin Bagley (age 27) (and AJ Johnson; 21). This cleared up a major financial crunch and made the Mavs a touch younger. Since then, all three of Middleton, Bagley and AJ Johnson have also moved on, furthering the youth movement.
Following those moves, the Mavericks have spent the offseason loading their team with athletic, rangy players who are age 25 and under. Following is a list of the current roster.
Returning players under age 25
- Max Christie – Age 23 – 6’5”
- John Poulakidas – Age 23 – 6’6”
- Dereck Lively – Age 22 – 7’1”
- Moussa Cisse – Age 23 – 6’11”
- Cooper Flagg – Age 19 – 6’9”
New players under age 25
- Marcus Sasser – Age 25 – 6’1”
- Zaccharie Risacher – Age 21 – 6’8”
- Jett Howard – Age 22 – 6’8”
- Morez Johnson – Age 20 – 6’9”
- Tobi Lawal – Age 23 – 6’8”
- Santi Aldama – Age 25 – 7’0”
- Sergio De Larrea – Age 20 – 6’5”
- Tarik Biberovic – Age 25 – 6’7”
- Vsevolod Ishchenko – Age 21 – 6’3”
That is nine new players age 25 or younger joining a roster that retains five other players that are 25 or younger. Of those 14 total players, the shortest is Sasser at 6’1” but he has an insane 6’7” wingspan.
Will all of these players be rotation-ready to open the season? No. Is every one of these players going to be on the team in five years? Unlikely. Is this roster destined for greatness? Maybe. Lively may still be recovering from injury by the time the season starts, while Howard, Lawal, Ishchenko and others may be on two-way deals (or altogether waived). None of that is the point, however.
The point is that the newly built Mavericks’ front office, led by Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz, clearly have a vision for the type of team they want to build around Cooper Flagg. Moreover, they have constructed that team with a paucity of assets thanks to the last regime. Despite that, they have found ways to get clever by moving up in the Draft to get a player like De Larrea, trading virtually nothing to get a former #1 pick in Risacher, matching an incredibly favorable contract for Cisse, manufacturing a favorable trade to pick up Aldama, using second round draft assets for Lawal and Ishchenko, and snatching a proficient marksman from overseas in Biberovic.
Only time will tell what will work and what will not, but Mavericks fans can take a few things to heart. They have a young, long athletic team, many of whom are on favorable contracts. They have a front office that had a plan and creatively executed that plan. And gone are the days of sneaker connections and covert coffee house trades or an owner who overrules his defacto GM to leave a generational talent on the draft board.
This is what a rebuild from a barren wasteland looks like. Young guys, many of whom you’ve never heard of, hopefully providing some excitement and a growth trajectory to root for. Oh, and those players on the roster over age 26? All of them currently remain intact as either veteran leadership or trade pieces. For now, the Mavs have a team the likes of which they’ve rarely featured, with some remaining assets and most of the summer remaining to do more.
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