Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[Scott41theMavs]

I think Coop is being groomed to be like Giannis - a forward who has the ball an awful lot and creates offense at times for both himself and others. The goal will be to create matchup issues. The question will be less about the labels and more about which players they put on the floor with him, and I would expect they will experiment a lot to find the best answers to that question.

He's very skilled, and a tremendously quick learner.

My concerns are more about the trajectory of his shooting efficiency, especially on 3s, and less about his handling-passing. If he could become a knockdown shooter on 3s, it makes a huge leap in what the Mavs can do and how good they can be right away.

The comparison in my mind has always been Lebron, who has won most of his championships with a guard-creator next to him (Wade, Kyrie), but who creates the shots on offense a good chunk of the time himself. Or, for those who hate Lebron, think of it as a Jordan-level Pippen who needs a Pippen-level Jordan.

KL has said various times that he does not want Coop to be the main initiator, that his greatest strength is in finishing (and also, that then he can still remain fully engaged on D, rather than the Luka/Beard rest half the game and guess which half approach). If there's one thing I believe Coop is not, it is Shawn Kemp. He should not have to initiate the offense most of the time, but failing to rely on him for at least half of your creation when he's on the court is a wasteful mistake. 

If there's one thing that Coop taught me last year, it's not to put ***any*** limitations on "what kind of player" he is. The template is more like Neo ("I know kung fu").