LAS VEGAS — In the end, the Dallas Mavericks Summer League team put the ball in the hands of their best player, the incoming rookie they trusted most, and depended on him to make the play.
And he delivered.
No, not Cooper Flagg. Or at least not exactly.
The sold-out crowd packed into the Thomas and Mack Center for the marquee event of the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League got to see plenty in the No. 1 overall pick’s professional debut.
They saw the six-foot-nine Duke star play point guard. They saw him struggle at times to create offence against NBA-adjacent defenders — former Oklahoma City Thunder prospect Darius Bazley used his spidery six-foot-eight frame, quickness and five years of NBA experience to give the 18-year-old Flagg some problems.
Flagg may have been exaggerating when he described his first live action since losing the national championship final with Duke back in April as “one of the worst games in my life”, but then again, maybe not. Flagg certainly didn’t put up any 5-of-21 shooting lines when he was dominating college basketball last season, and likely not in high school either.
But he was still part of the winning moment in the Mavericks’ 87-85 victory over Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers. It was Flagg’s block on Lakers guard DJ Steward that ignited the fast break with 69 seconds left and finished with Flagg twisting and turning to get the ball to Ryan Nembhard, who was the best Mavericks rookie on the night.
The point guard from Aurora, Ont., stepped into the shot confidently and knocked down what proved to be the game-winning three. It came just a few possessions after Nembhard hit a jumper in isolation over (briefly) former Raptor Cole Swider, pulling Dallas within one with 1:46 to play.
They were the signature moments for a scintillating start to what he hopes will be a long stint with the Mavericks, who signed the former Gonzaga star to a two-way deal after Nembhard and his representatives asked teams in the bottom third of the second round not to draft him, having targeted Dallas as his preferred destination.
That it was Nembhard, the undrafted free agent, who was the Mavericks’ best player Thursday night, not Flagg, the superstar-to-be who had been tagged as the No. 1 overall pick for 18 months or more, wasn’t all that surprising.
Summer League is its own animal, full of hard-to-predict turns. Flagg was rusty, and Nembhard is damn good, fresh off a record-setting season for Gonzaga. He has already shown that his listed height (six feet in shoes) wasn’t an obstacle as he pulled his way up from the G-League combine to the regular NBA combine and onto teams’ draft boards in the space of a few weeks. No point in putting limits on him now.
“He speaks for himself (with his game),” said Mavericks Summer League head coach Josh Broghamer. “Normally you want to get your smallest guy out of there at the end of games to get a stop … but we want him in there because he’s tough, he’s smart, he’s going to make the right play, he’s gonna fight … if you watch all the times he’s boxing out bigger dudes, they’re falling down and he’s not.
“Just an incredible game from him.”
Flagg wasn’t bad either, even if he struggled somewhat offensively, which was understandable given how long it’s been since he’s played in a competitive environment and that the Mavericks were giving him large doses of point guard duties, which in turn exposed him to physical, full-court defence from a number of defenders.
Despite his high shot totals, he forced very little. He flashed his athleticism when he made a steal and went full court for a contested dunk for his first bucket. He only made one turnover. He didn’t get drawn into the crowd’s energy when a switch found him matched up with James (eight points on 2-of-8 shooting) in the half court the first time. Instead, he made a quick read and found his big man in the dunker’s spot, which in turn led to an open Mavericks look from three. Moments later, he gave the crowd (well, other than the huge swaths of Lakers fans in attendance) what they wanted when he ended a one-on-one battle in the post with James by rising up and drilling a turnaround over the smaller defender.
And then there was his key block and assist on the game-winning bucket. As ‘worst games’ go, it was pretty good, actually. Given he doesn’t turn 19 until November, chances are he’ll adjust accordingly. Maybe by the weekend.
“I mean, I was excited. I was obviously a little nervous, and that’s a new environment, you know, a lot of new fans and whatnot,” Flagg said. “So I was a little nervous, a little excited, but just happy to be here. I mean, that’s a dream come true. So I’m just trying to enjoy just trying to enjoy the moment.
“It’s just a different game, different spacing, you know, different guys. A lot of guys are in different parts of their careers, coming from different angles, different, you know, parts of their lives. So it’s just trying to mesh that all together, you know, figure out what works and what doesn’t …”
He doesn’t have to work very hard to mesh with Nembhard, or vice versa. Unselfish players who ooze high basketball IQ usually get along just fine on the floor.
“He’s super fun to play with, super unselfish guy,” Nembhard said of Flagg. “All he wants to do is win; he guards five positions. He scores the ball really well. Obviously, it wasn’t his night tonight, but the gravity he has out there helps other guys get good looks. So he’s a super talent and has been fun to play with.
Ditto, said Flagg, basically: “Ryan’s great. He’s a great player. He has such a great feel for the game. So I love playing with him. It’s been a fun couple of weeks.”
They could end up playing a lot of basketball together. All indications are that the Mavericks are very high on their Canadian point guard, and not just because former Canadian men’s national team head coach Jay Triano is on their coaching staff now.
But with star point guard Kyrie Irving likely out for the season with a knee injury, the Mavericks’ options get pretty slim at the position after DeAngelo Russell, who was signed as a free agent as a placeholder until Irving gets healthy. The Mavericks are loaded with bigs who put pressure on the rim and shooters who spread the floor. Nembhard’s ability to break down defences and scatter the ball with the best of them — he set conference and school records in assists in his senior college season — combined with his defensive grit, could give him a chance to make his mark.
Which is all he wants or needs.
“I just wanted to go to the right fit,” he said of his decision to choose the Mavericks among the several teams that were offering him two-way deals (an arrangement that allows teams to shuffle a prospect from the G-League to the primary team without using a roster spot). “Once you get later in that draft, it’s a bunch of two ways (offers). So you want to go to the right spot … I just feel like I have the ability to come in here and have an opportunity to impact winning. And I feel like if I get an opportunity, that’s all I need. I’ll figure it out once I get there.”
In teaming up with Flagg for a win in their respective professional debuts, Nembhard couldn’t have made the point any clearer.
