The Mavericks realize how fortunate they are to have won Monday’s draft lottery that all but guaranteed Cooper Flagg will land in Dallas. According to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Subscriber link), CEO Rick Welts said the business staff received an overwhelming number of ticket and sponsor requests shortly after winning the lottery.
“In the past 24 hours alone,” Welts said. “We’ve had 28-times more inbound calls for season tickets and 35-times more daily additions to the season-ticket waitlist. Also, six-times more inbound sponsorship communications from brands and prospective clients.”
According to ESPN, Flagg also understands how great of a situation Dallas can be for him and is excited about the prospect of joining a playoff-caliber roster and getting the chance to be a significant part of the offensive scheme.
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- After the shocking Luka Doncic trade in February sent uproars throughout the Mavericks fanbase, winning the lottery gives those same fans a reason to be hopeful, Christian Clark of The Athletic writes. In a similar story, Mark Medina of Athlon Sports writes that Flagg can help the Mavericks jump back into contention in year one.
- After landing the second overall pick in the lottery, the Spurs appear primed to select Rutgers guard Dylan Harper. He spoke about the chance of playing alongside ball dominant players like De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, according to San Antonio Express-News’ Tom Orsborn (Twitter link). “The NBA is really positionless basketball, so I mean you could play with a bunch of ball handlers and a bunch of people that could get opportunities for themselves, but let other people get opportunities for them,” Harper said.
- After finishing with the fourth-worst record in the league, the Pelicans fell three spots in the draft lottery to No. 7. Rod Walker of NOLA.com analyzes seven prospects who could make sense for New Orleans after the lottery didn’t go their way. Walker writes that Duke’s Kon Knueppel would be his favorite at No. 7 if he had to pick a favorite, given the spacing that he would add. Another intriguing pick could be South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles, who new basketball operations head Joe Dumars might favor due to his toughness.