The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft is on June 25, meaning that 29 teams have less than one month to make any last desperate offers to pry presumed No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg away from the Dallas Mavericks.
For what it’s worth, it’s already been reported that the Mavericks have no plans to give up the top overall selection.
That hasn’t stopped scores of NBA experts from crafting trade ideas which would result in Dallas losing the rights to drafting Flagg on June 25.
In a piece published on Monday morning, ESPN insiders Andre Snellings, Bobby Marks, Kevin Pelton and Zach Kram came up with three blockbuster trade ideas involving the Mavericks, ones that would see them shocking the sports world and trading the No. 1 overall pick.
Full Breakdown of Mammoth 16-Player Trade Idea
The biggest blockbuster of the trio involves the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers, as well as Dallas.
Here’s the trade idea:
– Mavericks receive: Donovan Mitchell, 2031 first-round pick (via Lakers), 2028 first-round swap (via Lakers), 2030 first-round swap (via Lakers)
– Cavaliers receive: 2025 No. 1 pick (presumably Flagg), Daniel Gafford, Gabe Vincent, Jevon Carter, Maxi Kleber, P.J. Washington
– Lakers receive: Jarrett Allen
– Bulls receive: Caleb Martin, Dalton Knecht, 2026 second-round pick (via Cavaliers), 2027 second-round pick (via Denver Nuggets), 2028 second-round pick (via Cavaliers)
As the insiders noted, the 2024 Western Conference champions have “flexibility to make a trade” with 10 players earning between $2 million and $16 million, including big men Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington (included in the trade proposal).
“Flagg could be entering as a star on a Mavericks roster that’s brimming with talented wings, but a franchise that is $17 million over the luxury tax and over both aprons. The Mavericks also have three tradeable first-round picks and two seconds,” the insiders wrote.
Marks wrote that, while sources have confirmed to ESPN that Dallas general manager Nico Harrison and company “plan to select Flagg and will not entertain the possibility of trading away the pick for a proven superstar,” the man at the helm has also shown a penchant for making bold moves.
Of course, the latest and biggest was shipping five-time All-Star and former Rookie of the Year Luka Doncic to the Lakers in February.
“Since taking over basketball operations in June 2021, Harrison has made 16 trades and continually searched for the right combination of players to win a championship. … The (Doncic) trade has the Mavericks in a win-now mode considering (Anthony Davis) has three years left on his contract,” Marks wrote. “While there is a temptation, especially if a player such as (Giannis Antetokounmpo) were available in a trade, the approach by Dallas is smart from a roster-building standpoint. Financially, Flagg’s four-year rookie contract is comparable to a free agent signing the non-tax midlevel exception. His $13.8 million salary in Year 1 is below the average player salary. With Davis and (Kyrie Irving) on the roster next season, swapping out Flagg’s salary for a player earning more than $50 million makes little sense. And then there is the realization that first-round picks do not change teams after their original contract expires. The Mavericks could have Flagg under contract for the next four seasons and an additional five.”
Move Could ‘Help Everyone Involved’
The ESPN insiders point out that Cleveland is almost certainly not going to blow up their roster after ending the 2024-25 regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference, despite their disappointing elimination in the second round of the playoffs. While the Cavaliers would form a new big three in Flagg, All-Star power forward (and Defensive Player of the Year) Evan Mobley and All-Star point guard Darius Garland in the proposed deal, saying goodbye to Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen would certainly qualify as blowing up the team.
“… If Cleveland believed that the loss to the Indiana Pacers exposed fatal flaws and if the Cavaliers felt recentering the roster around 23-year-old Evan Mobley was the right response, this move could help everyone involved,” Pelton wrote.
Aside from Dallas acquiring a new running mate for Davis and Cleveland revamping its group, Chicago and Los Angeles would look massively different in the fall as well.
The Lakers are desperately looking for an elite big man and Allen would give them one of the best young talents in the game.
“The Lakers get their long-desired rim-running center in Allen, undoubtedly the best big man available to them in terms of current value. Getting Allen costs them not only the pick, swap and Knecht (what they tried to send the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams), but also a second swap. If the Lakers can build around Allen and Doncic like they hope, that swap shouldn’t convey anyway,” Pelton wrote. “Lastly, the Bulls are needed as a fourth team to ensure none of the other three teams adds salary in this deal, which would hard cap them at the lower luxury tax apron. Chicago takes on the remainder of Martin’s contract in exchange for adding Knecht and all of the Cavaliers’ tradeable second-round picks.”
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