Dallas landing Masai Ujiri to take over basketball operations is seen by many as a coup. One of the most respected front office minds in the league, the man who built the Toronto Raptors into champions, comes to a Mavericks team in the midst of a self-inflicted rebuild (including rebuilding its reputation with its fans) after Nico Harrison made the Luka Doncic trade.
Why did Ujiri choose Dallas? Two words: Cooper Flagg. Ujiri made that abundantly clear at his press conference.(Quotes via Abby Jones.)
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“The one difficult thing to find anywhere, anywhere in sports, it’s a generational player, and we have one. We’ve planted a Flagg here. We have one player here that can turn everything and it is so hard to find in sports.”
And…
“You’ve got Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and Nikola Jokic all for the next 7-15 years. Okay, now you have to convince me that I have to beat all those guys. Okay, you gotta come with something in your pocket, okay? …And in his pocket he had Cooper Flagg.”
And about the Doncic trade…
“We have a saying in Africa, we say, ‘when kings go, kings come’ and a king went [Luka] and we have a little prince [Cooper Flagg] here now. He’s turning into a king and I think we have to start thinking that way.”
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Also from that introductory press conference.
• Ujiri said he was going to look at every aspect of basketball operations and reassess it. With that, Jason Kidd may not be safe as head coach.
• Ujiri said he is excited to see what Kyrie Irving, who missed all of last season recovering from a torn ACL, looks like next to Flagg. It did not sound like Ujiri is looking to trade the nine-time All-Star point guard.
• Team governor Patrick Dumont reiterated that ownership is committed to Dallas, and while they are looking to build a new arena that will be their home “for 40 years” that will be in the greater Dallas area.
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