Rich Paul's Dallas pitch for LeBron James skipped the roster. Here's the real basketball case: Kyrie Irving's return, Cooper Flagg's leap, and a deep roster.
Rich Paul brought up the Dallas Mavericks on his podcast with a whiteboard, but there was no basketball reason to go there. Paul's pitch for the Mavs ran through oil money, golf, the Sands Group's casino business in Macau, and Masai Ujiri's connections across Africa. Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving didn't come up once.
James recently told the Lakers he's leaving. His team is in talks with about ten teams, including the Warriors, Nuggets, Cavaliers, Heat, and 76ers, which have all made offers. Dallas would have communicated if they had an offer, so exploring other options makes sense.
Irving and James won a championship in 2016, and a reunion has been discussed for years. After tearing his left ACL in March 2025 and missing last season, Irving said in May he's nearly fully recovered and plans to join training camp. He will have had 18 months to get back to form by the time he plays his next regular-season opener. Dallas would give James a proven, championship-winning point guard he's worked with before. Irving even tried to recruit James to join him in Dallas.
The Flagg piece is a little more unconventional, but it's real too. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year, and in April, he went for 45 on James's Lakers at American Airlines Center. Afterward, somebody asked James if he saw any of himself in Flagg's rookie year, and he didn't hesitate. He brought up his late coach in Cleveland, Paul Silas, who threw him into the point guard spot as a teenager: "That's what Paul Silas, rest his soul, did for me." James has followed Flagg since AAU days and considers him talented. Someone who discusses the next generation as much as James may not mind spending a season alongside someone he's already comparing himself to.
Dallas cleared its books in February by trading Davis, Jaden Hardy, D'Angelo Russell, and Dante Exum to Washington, freeing them from the tax and leaving a $20.8 million trade exception. They expect to be about $39 million below the tax line and $45 million under the first apron this summer, making the $15 million midlevel exception and $5.5 million bi-annual exception available, none of which is max money. Golden State is freeing a similar slot for him by having Draymond Green take less.
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Dallas has already leveraged flexibility to add talent. The Mavericks traded for Santi Aldama's $17 million salary via the Davis exception and plan to absorb Detroit's Marcus Sasser before July 6 using an exception. Rival contending teams will need to shed salary, and Dallas can take on these contracts. Acquiring talent from cap-constrained teams could reshape their roster by February.
Last season, Dallas went 26-56, missed the playoffs for the second straight year, and is focused on building around Flagg. Regardless, there are reasons to be optimistic about the Mavericks.
The Mavericks played 45 clutch games with a 17-28 record. If Irving had been on the court, some of those close losses surely would have turned into wins. Don't forget that Flagg is only 19, but he could be due for a significant leap in his second season. He already showed incredible potential as a rookie. With James in the mix, it would be a nightmare to account for such a talented trio that can hunt mismatches and get creative with half-court actions.
Dallas has rim-protecting centers Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, with Moussa Cissé possibly re-signed. Klay Thompson's presence stretches the floor even when he isn't shooting. Max Christie has only gotten better throughout his career. Perimeter players like P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall, and Caleb Martin can help on both ends. The team also added Morez Johnson Jr., Sergio De Larrea, Tobi Lawal, and Vsevolod Ishchenko in the NBA Draft. Additionally, returning point guard Ryan Nembhard showed promise in his first year.
Add it up and Dallas has more of a basketball case than Rich Paul's whiteboard gave it credit for, mostly because of Irving and Flagg and a front office that's already moving fast with the tools it has. It's just not a finished one. That's probably why it ended up on the board close to the golf courses rather than earlier.
