Former Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd explained why he decided to use Cooper Flagg at point guard during his rookie season, revealing that the move was intended to develop another reliable playmaker alongside Kyrie Irving.
Kidd, who coached Dallas during the 2025-26 season before being replaced by Dusty May, believed that giving Flagg additional ball-handling responsibilities would help prepare him for important situations later in his career.
“I think when you look at it, sometimes we get caught up in the titles. Point guard, point forward, it becomes basketball. Can you bring the ball up? Can you make plays, decision-making?”
The former Mavericks coach explained that Flagg already demonstrated an advanced understanding of basketball at 18 years old.
However, Kidd also recognized that opposing teams would challenge the rookie by applying pressure and forcing him to make decisions while handling the ball.
“And I thought for him, you could see that he understood the game at a very high level at the age of 18, but understand guys were going to target him and pick him up full court.”
Kidd said the decision was partly motivated by the possibility of Dallas reaching the playoffs or play-in tournament, where opponents could focus on limiting Irving’s opportunities to control the offense.
Rather than relying entirely on Irving, Kidd wanted Flagg to gain experience creating plays and organizing the offense before those situations arose.
“We wanted to kind of look at speeding up the process if there’s a big game coming in the future, um, playoffs or play-in, will we have another ball handler if they took the ball out of Kai’s hand? And so, we were trying to think a a little bit of ahead.”
