Mavericks Land 9th Pick in 2026 NBA Draft and Now Face a Tough Decision Building Around Cooper Flagg
The Dallas Mavericks have the No. 9 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. It is a useful asset on a roster that needs almost everything around Cooper Flagg, but it is not the lottery jackpot that the franchise was hoping for.
Dallas entered the May 17 lottery with the eighth-best odds. They dropped one slot, the way most teams in their range do, and ended up at nine. The draft itself runs June 23-24 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The context here is what makes the pick valuable. Flagg, last year’s No. 1 overall pick, is the reigning Rookie of the Year and the centerpiece of the entire rebuild. He averaged 18 points and seven rebounds as a 19-year-old. He has All-NBA upside by year three. The Mavs do not need to draft another future face of the franchise. They need to build out the roster that supports him.
That makes the No. 9 pick a different conversation than most lottery picks. Dallas can take the best player on their board, not the best fit. They can also flip the pick in a trade. They can package it with one of their other picks (they also hold No. 48). They can use it to chase a veteran star who fits the timeline.
The early mock draft projections have Dallas in three main lanes. Lane one is a backup guard who can play next to Kyrie Irving and eventually replace him. Names floating in that range include Houston’s Kingston Flemings and Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr.. Either could be a long-term combo guard on cheap money.
Lane two is the Duke connection. Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving, and Dereck Lively II are all Blue Devil alums. The Mavericks have shown a willingness to build chemistry around college pipelines, and players who suited up with Flagg in Durham have value beyond just their on-court skills. Knowing how he plays and how to play off him is a meaningful starting point.
Lane three is shooting. The Mavericks are paper-thin on real movement shooters. Klay Thompson is closer to the end of his rope than the beginning. Spencer Dinwiddie is not a knockdown shooter. Naji Marshall has improved but is not a primary spacer. Drafting a player who can space the floor around Flagg, Irving, and Anthony Davis when he comes back from injury would make Dallas immediately tougher to guard.
The strangest part of this lottery night is that Dallas got Flagg at all. The Mavericks were supposed to be in the lottery’s middle tier last year and won the No. 1 overall pick anyway. They paid for that miracle by trading away Luka Doncic three months earlier, but the lottery balls cooperated. This year’s No. 9 pick feels normal by comparison.
Masai Ujiri now runs the basketball ops department in Dallas. He just signed off on parting ways with Jason Kidd. He has a coaching search and a draft strategy to run simultaneously over the next month. That is a heavy summer.
If Dallas keeps the pick, they need a player who can contribute right away. Flagg’s window is starting now. Irving is 33. Davis is 33. The Mavs cannot afford to spend a lottery pick on a project player and pretend it is a rebuild move. They are a contender that just got blown up. They need the No. 9 pick to play 70 games and matter.
If Dallas trades the pick, the package on the other end needs to be a starter or a high-upside contributor. There is no value in cashing in this asset for cap relief or future picks at this point in the cycle.
The board is wide open at nine. Dallas has the most interesting decision of the late lottery.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
