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Mavericks’ Jason Kidd explains why he played Cooper Flagg at point guard early in season
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- Mavericks’ Jason Kidd explains why he played Cooper Flagg at point guard early in season
Mavericks' Jason Kidd explains why he played Cooper Flagg at point guard early in season appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
DALLAS — Early in the 2025-26 season, Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd surprised many by playing 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg at the point guard position. The results were far from ideal, as Flagg — who had primarily played forward previously — did not look especially comfortable at point guard.
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Flagg has since been moved to forward and Ryan Nembhard is running the point. Still, Kidd clearly wanted to play Flagg at point guard for a reason early in the year.
So what led to Kidd's Flagg point guard decision ? What was the thinking behind the surprising move? While speaking to reporters before Friday's game, Kidd explained the move.
"When you talk about Cooper, just giving him information to see how he digests it," Kidd told reporters . "I know that wasn't a popular thing, but having him at point guard is something he needed to do sooner than later, because some will flip it and say, 'Why didn't he do this sooner?' As a coach, I'll take the blame for that.
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"But putting him in that position, understanding success is the last six minutes of the game, turns into the last three minutes, your best player's gonna have the ball. Just understanding the game a little bit different than the others, I wanted to see him handle the ball sooner. Sometimes we fail, sometimes there's success. But it doesn't turn us from trying to get better at our job. That's the way I look at it."
Kidd wanted to give Flagg a challenge to see how he responded to the pressure. While Flagg's results were not ideal, the Mavericks head coach was impressed by how the 18-year-old rookie handled the situation.
"I'm not always right, but I will fail with him because I want to see him become successful. From past experiences of giving others the ball, we've had success and failures," Kidd continued. "So, this is an 18-year-old… playing against the best players in the world. I want to see how he handles it. I thought he did an incredible job.
"The numbers will say something different, but I think as time goes on… There is always a big picture, and sometimes in society we want the now. But in the long run, we're playing the long game with him because of his age. We just want to hopefully be apart of that successful story. I think he can handle it. He's shown that he can handle that."
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Flagg hasn't complained either. He's open to doing whatever he can to help the team.
"He's never come to me and said he doesn't want to do something," Kidd added. "He's open to ideas, and that's kind of cool for a young man who has all this information that's poured into him, to be able to tell him one thing, and he can deliver."
Flagg and the Mavericks will look to earn a victory over the Nets on Friday.
Related: Mavericks' Max Christie gets brutally honest on learning from Klay Thompson
