After the Mavericks and Nico Harrison’s incredible bit of fortune, the Lakers could end being being a beneficiary of a roster crunch they’ll find themselves in.
In a bit of good fortune and literally nothing else and certainly nothing predetermined or rigged, the Mavs lucked into the No. 1 pick of the 2025 NBA Draft at Monday’s lottery.
It’s good to see a general manager like Nico Harrison rewarded for such fine work as a general manager, an opinion held likely only by Lakers fans across the NBA landscape.
Jokes aside, it’s a huge shift in the landscape for the NBA. The Mavs jumped 10 spots in the lottery to earn the No. 1 pick and will get Cooper Flagg now, a generational prospect.
Months after trading away the franchise cornerstone, they will add presumably a new franchise cornerstone. And while much of the discussion has been purely on that topic, there is an aspect to this that could benefit the Lakers.
Everyone is well aware that the Lakers are in need of a center. Multiple centers, in fact. But there isn’t an abundance of them on the trade market or in free agency. Teams covet big men even if there is more small ball than ever.
One of the teams that already had an abundance of centers? The Dallas Mavericks. And now, they add someone in Cooper Flagg who, while his position is not yet entirely defined, is definitely a big man who will eat into more of those center and power forward minutes.
Flagg will join Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, Derrick Lively and PJ Washington in the front court rotation. While some of those guys could play the three, all are best as either forwards or centers, meaning Dallas now has a log jam of big men. Most of those big men also have a history of playing with Luka Dončić, too.
Surely Nico Harrison wouldn’t trade with the Lakers again, right?
It feels like nothing can be ruled out with Harrison. Once you trade Luka for pennies on the dollar, everything is in the realm of possibility.
When it comes to those five big men, you can rule some of them out. Flagg isn’t being traded, which is something that needed clarification, which again speaks to Harrison’s reputation. AD isn’t coming back to the Lakers either.
Derrick Lively is on his rookie contract still and won’t be dealt. Washington, meanwhile, showed his value in Dallas, but it wasn’t as a center. The Lakers trading for him would not solve any of their problems at center.
Which brings us to Gafford. The big man is on an expiring deal. He is not just a center, but the exact type of center Luka wants. He’s set to make $14.4 million next season, which is perfectly in line with a number of the mid-range contracts the Lakers have to trade.
Again, surely Nico wouldn’t do another trade with Rob Pelinka, would he? The last one went so well for the Lakers that Pelinka got an extension for it while Harrison has fans chanting for his firing.
Any of Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt or Maxi Kleber with the non-guaranteed contract of Shake Milton is a nearly exact match with Gafford’s contract. The trade negotiations and assets that would need to be included is the next step in the discussion. The key thing, though, is that this is now an avenue open for a trade that was likely previous closed.
It’s probably not worth looking into too deeply because, again, it just doesn’t seem possible that Dallas’ front office would call the Lakers front office any time over the next 10 years out of principle.
But if they were, the Lakers might be jumping at the chance.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.