{"id":10103,"date":"2025-10-18T18:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/10103\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T18:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:57:19","slug":"mavs-have-no-issue-with-cooper-flagg-running-the-show-despite-being-youngest-player-in-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/10103\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs have no issue with Cooper Flagg running the show despite being youngest player in NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even now, on the cusp of his third NBA season, Dallas Mavericks<\/a> center Dereck Lively II is among the NBA\u2019s younger players at 21 years, 247 days old. <\/p>\n

That makes it all the more entertaining for Lively to watch fellow Dukie Cooper Flagg<\/a> fit in so organically with Mavericks teammates who, in seven cases, are at least a decade his senior.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always trying to poke fun at the old guys, which is hilarious,\u201d Lively said Friday after the Mavericks\u2019 practice in their training facility. \u201cBut I make sure he doesn\u2019t bring that towards me because I\u2019m not that old.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Mavericks open the regular season at home next Wednesday against San Antonio<\/a>, Flagg will be the NBA\u2019s youngest player at 18 years, 10 months and one day old. He\u2019ll also be the second-youngest No. 1 pick in league history \u2013 eight days younger than LeBron James\u2019 in 2003.<\/p>\n

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\"Dylan<\/p>\n

Lively is two years, 10 months and nine days older than Flagg, which puts Lively more in the older brother category than the moniker with which Flagg addresses teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter who you are, he\u2019s like, \u2018All right, Unc,\u2019 \u201d Lively said. \u201cI let him call me Unc once or twice because of my dad, but we ain\u2019t letting it slide anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hey, at least Flagg isn\u2019t calling anyone Pops or Gramps. Mavericks coach Jason Kidd<\/a> notes that none of Flagg\u2019s teammates so much as raised an eyebrow while Kidd handed Flagg starting point guard duties for the Mavericks\u2019 final two preseason games.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean Flagg will start at point guard in the season opener, but now Kidd and his staff know that it won\u2019t be an issue if Flagg plays that position during stretches this season.<\/p>\n

In four preseason contests, Flagg averaged 11.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 21.7 minutes per game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s done an incredible job of handling the situation, of running the team,\u201d Kidd said after Wednesday\u2019s win over the Lakers in Las Vegas. \u201cThe other thing that I think that has gone unnoticed is that his teammates enjoy him running the team. That doesn\u2019t happen in this league. So I think that\u2019s a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kidd said the Mavericks spent the first part of Friday\u2019s practice watching film of the 27-point win over the short-handed Lakers and looking at areas that need cleaning up before the season opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching the video, things that we did well and then things that we have to continue to keep working at, I thought it was good today,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cI thought guys did a really good job in the film room, and then bringing that information on to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even now, on the cusp of his third NBA season, Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II is among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,4642,102,104,2582,103,4280,4281,3080,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-10103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-jason-kidd","15":"tag-mavericks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}