This is emphatically not the situation Cooper Flagg is about to walk into. If everything goes right, the Mavericks -- who improbably won the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on Monday night -- could genuinely contend for the 2026 championship.

Unbelievably, Dallas experienced the ultimate lucky break of drawing the No. 1 pick and consensus top selection Cooper Flagg of Duke. This marked the first time in 17 draft lottery attempts that the Mavericks vaulted to a higher pick than the odds projected.

The Mavs had moved Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a seismic trade earlier this year, only to miss the playoffs and fall into the lottery, but after succeeding with a 1.8 percent chance, Dall