Cooper Flagg's Sophomore Leap Is Real — and It's Already Rewriting the Mavericks' Timeline

The Dallas Mavericks were supposed to be a feel-good story about patience. A 26-win team, a first-year NBA head coach in Dusty May, a returning Kyrie Irving, and a 19-year-old franchise cornerstone in Cooper Flagg who everyone agreed would be very good eventually. Seven games into 2026-27, "eventually" has arrived early. Dallas is 4-3, coming off wins over a previously undefeated Houston team and a road trip through Miami, and the national conversation has shifted from watch for the leap to is Flagg already a top-10 player?

The numbers make the question fair. Over his last six games, Flagg is averaging 25.2 points, 6.5 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 steals on 48.6 percent shooting and 88.9 percent from the line, playing 33.7 minutes a night with a plus-7.0 average in the plus/minus column. Compare that to a rookie season of 21.0 points, 4.5 assists and 46.8 percent shooting, and the growth isn't incremental — it's structural. He put 29 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and five steals on Miami, 33 and nine on Houston, and 26 in a 24-point win over Oklahoma City. He's also getting there at the line: 11-of-13 in the opener, 11-of-11 in the Kings loss, 7-of-10 against Houston.

What's driving it, and what's missing

The leap is coming from volume plus efficiency at the rim and at the stripe, not from deep. Flagg is shooting 23.3 percent from three over this stretch on 30 attempts, and the 3-19 shooting night against Sacramento was the clearest illustration of what happens when his jumper deserts him and the free throws aren't enough to compensate. It's the same wobble that showed up in his rookie profile as a sub-30 percent three-point shooter. That's the swing skill — if it stabilizes even to league-average, the top-10 case stops being a talking point and becomes a scouting report.

Kyrie Irving is the other half of the equation, and he's been excellent: 21.4 points on 52.7 percent shooting and 39 percent from three across five games, including 35 points and nine assists against Houston. But Dallas sat him for injury management in Monday's 115-100 home loss to a previously winless Sacramento team, and the offense collapsed into a slog. That loss also broke a three-game win streak and dropped the Mavericks back to .500-ish respectability at 4-3.

It's a useful reminder that this team's margin is thin. Dallas is scoring 112.3 and allowing 112.3 — literally dead even on the season — and the defensive rating ranks 22nd league-wide. The offense is fast and efficient at times (126.9 offensive rating over the last 10) but the defense has given much of it back.

The next test is a familiar one

The schedule offers an immediate measuring stick: a Wednesday trip to San Antonio, where the Spurs are 5-2 with a plus-9.3 point differential and already beat Dallas 122-106 in Dallas on Oct. 24. Then come home dates with Utah, Brooklyn and Indiana — a stretch that should tell us whether the Mavericks are the team that beat Houston and Oklahoma City, or the one that got trap-gamed by the Kings.

The broader trend line is genuinely encouraging. Dallas has climbed from 24th to 19th in the site's SRS-style power rating, a 4.16-point jump earned against a schedule strength of 2.44 — and this from a team that rated -8.37 the prior season. May, hired straight out of Michigan after a national championship, has drawn praise for in-game adjustments and lineup combinations that predecessor Jason Kidd struggled with.

None of this makes Dallas a finished product. It makes them ahead of schedule, with the most important variable — a 19-year-old who is already producing like a star — trending in the right direction. The jumper is the last box to check.