5 Dallas Mavericks Trade Targets to Save Cooper Flagg's Rookie NBA Season
Losses in early November aren't supposed to incite panic. Yet, when they come at the hands of the 2025-26 New Orleans Pelicans, it is absolutely time to sound the alarm.
On a related note: The Dallas Mavericks clearly need to make a trade if they want Cooper Flagg's rookie season to feature more than hollow-hearted moral victories.
Any move must be aimed at upgrading the offense. That...won't be hard. Dallas is 30th in points scored per possession and 28th in effective field-goal percentage and doesn't have any in-house solutions.
D'Angelo Russell is not the answer. Nor is Jaden Hardy. Playing Flagg at point guard is a valuable experimental gimmick, but it's a disservice to saddle him with too much floor-general responsibility this soon. The Mavs are minus-61 on the season when he plays without a point guard, with an offensive rating that'll make your eyes bleed.
Waiting on Kyrie Irving's return from an ACL injury doesn't fly, either. His timeline remains uncertain, and margins for error don't exist in the West. It has to be a trade.
So, let's go ahead and offer Nico Harrison the helping hand he didn't ask for, and run through five realistic-but-still-ambitious targets the Mavs should be circling.
Tyler Herro, Miami Heat
1 of 5
Tyler Herro has yet to play this season while recovering from left ankle surgery. Between Norman Powell's performance in his absence, Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s on-ball reps, the selection of Kasparas Jakučionis this past June and the Miami Heat not signing him to an extension in October, the 25-year-old All-Star could be more gettable than untouchable.
Dallas doesn't have to worry about Herro's potential redundancies alongside a healthy Kyrie Irving. He is better suited as the secondary creator and has placed in the 75th percentile or better of spot-up three-point efficiency through four of his six seasons, per BBall Index.
With all of that said, Herro has improved enough to run the show for long pockets of time. He has long been one of the more underrated from-scratch shot-makers, and he leveled up as facilitator amid a skeleton crew of orchestrators in Miami last year.
Covering up for Herro defensively will be no sweat. Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis and the Mavs' overall size are equipped to handle it.
Cobbling together the right package gets a little bit tricky. Dallas is within $1.3 million of the second apron while Miami sits inside $2 million of the tax. A third team will be required—as will the Mavs' willingness to dangle some combination of Max Christie, the Los Angeles Lakers' 2029 first-round pick and their own 2032 first-rounder.
Malik Monk, Sacramento Kings
2 of 5
Malik Monk isn't a top-tier initiator for others, but he creates havoc with his downhill juice. He's also no stranger to working out of tight spaces. The Sacramento Kings have hardly been a billboard of floor balance during his tenure, and prior to this season, he ranked among the most effective passers out of drives.
Pressure will immediately be alleviated off Cooper Flagg's shoulders. Monk is both a ball-handling alternative, and an outlet for the rookie's own paint touches. This alone gives him the credentials to start for the Mavs in the interim. He can settle into a bench role once Kyrie Irving debuts.
Or not. Monk is banging in over 55 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes and has cut his teeth playing in triple-guard combinations with Sacramento. The Mavs could start him next to Kyrie. At the very least, they can and should play these two together.
Finding a workable deal is pretty straightforward. The Kings need…so much—including a backup big and more combo forwards. Dallas could wind up landing Monk for Daniel Gafford or Naji Marshall, salary filler and little else.
Payton Pritchard, Boston Celtics
3 of 5
Though Payton Pritchard's three-ball isn't falling to start the season, we have a half-decade's worth of evidence that proves his cold spell will even out. He was a career 39.9 percent shooter from distance entering this year.
Billed as a microwave sniper, Pritchard is actually so much more. He has the handle and footwork to get inside the paint and generate opportunities for his teammates. Deni Avdija, Devin Booker, Jaylen Brown, Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey and Austin Reaves are the only players to have as many points and assists out of drives this year.
Pritchard tries hard enough on defense and the glass to work in tandem with Kyrie Irving upon his return. His contract also fits Dallas' long-term salary structure. Including this season, he's under team control through 2027-28 at a total of $23.3 million—an average of 4.6 percent of the salary cap.
Prying him off the Boston Celtics will take Max Christie and/or first-round equity, not to mention Beantown leaning further into its gap-year reset. Roping in a third team to help shave more money off the Cs' luxury-tax bill would go a long way as well.
Austin Reaves, Los Angeles Lakers
4 of 5
Acquiring anyone who can dribble stands to noticeably improve the Mavs' offense. Landing Austin Reaves would transform it.
Prior to missing time with a groin issue, the 27-year-old was averaging more than 30 points and nine assists per game while nailing over 60 percent of his two-pointers. The hype is not overblown. He isn't a deadeye shooter, but he doesn't need space to keep defenses on tilt with his change-of-pace handle and improved passing against double-teams and out of traffic.
Adding Reaves' interior finishing would be huge. He's shooting 73 percent at the rim and 68 percent from floater range. The Mavs, meanwhile, don't have a single non-big posting an above-average clip in the restricted area.
A Reaves-Cooper Flagg duo has a ton of offensive upside on its own. Adding in Kyrie Irving will make it better. Reaves has shown he can remain impactful when he's second or even third in the pecking order. Dallas must be wary of his 2026 free agency (player option). He could fetch near-max money. And that's after having to give up some combination of Max Christie, Dereck Lively II and first-round equity.
Coby White, Chicago Bulls
5 of 5
Coby White is another player the Mavs will have to worry about paying beyond this season. He's also arguably the name on this list who best meets the duality of Dallas' needs.
Running the offense isn't quite his bag, but he can make the live-dribble reads necessary to optimize Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg. As a scorer, he doesn't need much space to make things happen. He has ranked in the 85th percentile or better of self-created efficiency, according to BBall Index.
The Mavs don't have to worry about White finding his wheelhouse as they get healthier, either. Playing off others is second nature to him.
He has reliably shot over 38 percent on spot-up threes throughout his career and boosted his catch-and-go decision-making over the past couple of seasons. Slotting him next to Kyrie Irving would give Dallas two legitimate scorers who can make something out of nothing at every level.
White's $12.9 million salary simplifies the package-construction process. Determining his value to the Chicago Bulls is tougher. He could be their best player, but in his absence to start the season, they're on fire while heavily featuring Josh Giddey, Tre Jones, Matas Buzelis and Ayo Dosunmu. Given Chicago's play to date, along with White's impending free agency, the Mavs may have a window of opportunity to make something happen.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
