MAVS NEWS:

[SkenfromLMF]

I can't imagine that fire being lit any more than it was right after the trade.  Unfortunately it may have contributed to him coming back too soon and pushing too hard.  The knock on him has always been more about staying on the court than motivation.  

As was mentioned earlier, I imagine having an 18 year old rookie be viewed as the savior of the franchise might have at least as much motivation.  I hope our vets handle that situation with more class than what we witnessed with Luka's rookie year.

So I HOPE the fact that our vets are much better positioned to be contributors on a championship level team, compared to the group that surrounded Luka his rookie year. I do not hear much about a savior syndrome with Flagg as much as it is having a high level piece contributing to a team. My hope is that Flagg AD and Christie combine to be better than Luka and whoever the 16th or so pick would have been. IF they can show something in that regard then the trade can be viewed as successful - as a Mavs fan just having a competitive trade is much better than trading Kidd, or getting Eric Montross, or Lamar Odom or Rajon Rondo... anything is better than trading Dale Ellis for a Referee.