said<\/a> every decision the Mavericks made would be \u201cfuture-based.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWe have a 19-year-old generational player on our roster,\u201d Ujiri said, referring to Flagg. \u201cWe have to think that way. We are not going to make decisions based on winning today. I don\u2019t think that would make sense for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
An important piece of context here is that the Mavericks don\u2019t control much of their draft future because of moves they made to strengthen their roster around Luka Don\u010di\u0107. The Mavericks owe their 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets unless it falls into the top two, and they have zero control of their 2029 first-round pick. Dallas\u2019 2028 and 2030 first-rounders are tied up in pick swaps.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks acquired Washington and center Daniel Gafford in separate transactions ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. Those frontcourt additions helped Dallas catch fire to close the regular season, and the Mavericks were able to make it all the way to the NBA Finals later that year, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in a five-game series.<\/p>\n
Weeks after the Mavericks\u2019 loss in the 2024 finals, former general manager Nico Harrison acquired Thompson from the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade. Harrison said the Mavericks were a \u201cKlay away\u201d from winning the championship but then traded Don\u010di\u0107 to the Los Angeles Lakers nine months later, a move that spoiled any chance Dallas had of competing.<\/p>\n
Thompson only appeared in 21 games alongside Don\u010di\u0107. And while Don\u010di\u0107 performed at an MVP candidate level for the Lakers last season, the 36-year-old Thompson shifted into a bench role for the Mavericks, averaging 11.7 points in 69 games.<\/p>\n
Thompson is in the final year of his deal, which pays $17.5 million this season. Washington, who arrived via trade in February 2024 and was a key starter on the Mavs\u2019 finals team, is about to begin a four-year, $88.8 million extension.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks went 26-56 last season and were one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA, finishing 27th in points scored per 100 possessions. Adding Leonard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and seven-time All-NBA member, to the mix would certainly be a boost to Dallas\u2019 attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri has interest in reuniting with Kawhi Leonard, multiple league sources with knowledge of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[760,11952,355,99],"class_list":["post-731976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}