Dereck Lively On New Teammate Cooper Flagg

Suffice it to say he’s happy with the rook

One of the nice things about ending with the Dallas Mavericks after the 2025 NBA Draft is that Cooper Flagg will find a Brotherhood infrastructure in place.

The Mavericks have Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively on board and they’ve both expressed excitement about their new teammate.

Irving is recovering from ACL surgery so his time with Flagg will have to wait (in fact, Flagg may end up being Irving’s replacement at point guard, at least on a part-time basis).

For his part, Lively, speaking at Mavs Academy Hoops Camp, said this: “I’m making sure that he’s feeling as comfortable as possible, giving him any little detail or any little thing to give him. Because whenever I was in his position, I remember how frightened I was, and I was only 19 and he’s 18.”

No doubt he’s right about that. The NBA is the most fiercely competitive sports league in the world and compared to many other sports, the rosters are fairly small. Premier League soccer teams have 25 but also can have as many under-21 players as they want. MLB carries 26. NFL teams have 53 plus a practice squad.

NBA teams, by contrast, carry 15 and three on two-way contracts. In addition to American players, there are players from about 42 other countries. You have Canadians, French, Europeans of all sorts, Russians, Lithuanians, Japanese, Chinese and representatives from multiple African and Latin American countries. It’s insanely competitive and to take all that on at 18?

It’s not going to be easy for anyone and it won’t be for Flagg. So it’s nice that he has another Blue Devil or two around to help him sort things out.