Mavericks win NBA -draft lottery and chance to select Cooper Flag

Chicago (AP)-The ping pong balls spoke: Cooper Flagg could go to Dallas to start his NBA career.

And a fan base that Luka Doncic lost this season could have a new star to cheer on.

The Mavericks won them Nba draft lottery On Monday evening they give them The No. 1 selection In the draft of the next month – and the first chance of taking flag, the newcomer to the Duke to the Final Four in his Lone College season and the consensuser of the year.

A screaming Joy-Mark Cuban named New Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont, who meets his child's track-with the nice news, and that's exactly how there is a few turbulent months in which Doncic was traded and the Mavs missed the playoffs. The Cuban was so excited that Dumont obviously couldn't even find out the words he said. He just thought they were good.

“I'm very happy for Mavericks fans,” said Rick Wordens, CEO of Dallas, and the third clung to the number 1. “I only got in Dallas on January 1 of this year. February 1st. -Fans I can hardly expect to return to Dallas. “

Dallas had great chances of doing it, with just one chance of 1.8% – “An chance of 1.8%? Do you want to kid me?” Welts said – to win the lottery that comes into Monday. A MAVS team that went to the NBA final last season and then despised his fans by falling off Doncic against the Los Angeles Lakers, left the lottery with the greatest prize.

“I have not tried to think too much about it,” Flagg in the lottery showed what it will probably mean for its immediate future. “It was outside of my control.”

If Miami had lost in the game tournament, the heat would have had the probability that the Mavericks ultimately had the balls of the ping pongs bounced off in the same way, they would have had the number 1 selection.

“I mean, come”, man “, Kevin Love on social media, when the lottery winner was announced, probably reacted to a number 1 that could have been somewhere else.

Instead, it was Dallas' night. And another team in Texas almost stolen the show.

San Antonio with two beginners of the year in Victor Wembanyama-Dem Price of the Lottery from 2023 and Stephon Castle will select second place. Philadelphia will choose third and Charlotte in fourth place.

“If you jump back into the top 4, sit down as an organization in a place where you make a really big acquisition with a really good player,” said Spurs trainer Mitch Johnson. “And we will look forward to it.”

Flag scored an average of 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists and led Duke to the last four in his lonely college season. He shot 48% of the field, 39% from the 3-point area, 84% from the foul line and was the national player of the year of the Associated Press.

And he was already successful against NBA players. Last summer, when the US Olympic team held its training camp in Las Vegas in front of the Paris Games – where the Americans won again in gold – Flagg was part of the selected team that was brought to Scrimmages against the Olympies.

Flagg, who was 17 years old at the time, kept more than claimed in these workouts.

“I don't know who we'll take, but should we take it, I think his resume is pretty strong,” said Welts. “Every time he is put into a situation that everyone wondered whether he could be successful, he is successful and a few others.”

The other lottery results result

Utah will select fifth, Washington sixth, New Orleans Seventh, Brooklyn Eighth, Toronto Neez, Houston 10., Portland 11., Chicago 12th, Atlanta 13. And San Antonio 14.

There were 13 teams with the chance to win number 1. Utah, Washington and Charlotte had the best chances of 14%each. The jazz and the wizards were jumped, and San Antonio and Philadelphia moved to the top 4.

“This draft is very strong at the top, especially in the top three and we are very excited,” said Daryl Morey, President of the basketball operations by 76ers.

For jazz it was the expansion of a trend that they did not want to see – in this format the team, which ended the season with the worst record, did not win the lottery. Utah was a 17:65 league this season and achieved the fifth choice, the worst lottery result.

There were 14 lottery spots, but only 13 teams with the chance to win the number 1, since the chances of Atlanta, San Antonio, essentially mean that the Spurs were twice in the lottery with a 6% chance to win themselves, and a chance of 0.7%, with the Hawks combinations of ping pong balls.

This system has been available since 2019, the latest efforts to keep tanking the training in which teams are not excessively interested in gaining games of the regular season with hopes instead of improving their chances of winning the number 1-draft pick.

The teams with the three worst records all have the same chance -14% -to win No. 1 selection, and the opportunities for the remaining lottery teams are gradually reduced from there.

The rest of the draft decision

The lottery set the order only for the first 14 selection in the design. The rest of the first order in the first round: Oklahoma City in No. 15, Orlando No. 16, Minnesota No. 17, Washington No. 18, Brooklyn No. 19 and Miami No. 20.

From there, the last 10 picks in the first round are owned by Utah (21), Atlanta (22), Indiana (23), Oklahoma City (24), Orlando (25), Brooklyn (26 and 27), Boston (28), Phoenix (29) and the Los Angeles Clipper (30).

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AP sports author Andrew Seligman contributed to this report.

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