Jason Kidd explains quarterback Cooper Flagg’s decision

DALLAS — At the start of the 2025-26 season. Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd surprised many by playing 1 overall pick in 2025 Cooper Flagg in the point guard position. The results were far from ideal, as Flagg — who primarily played forward — didn’t look particularly comfortable as a point guard.

Flagg has since been moved to the front with Ryan Nembhard leading the point. Still, Kidd apparently wanted to play Flagg at point guard for some 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 with reporters before Friday’s game, Kidd explained the move.

“When you’re talking about Cooper, just give him information and see how he digests it,” Kidd he told reporters. “I know it wasn’t a popular thing, but having him at point guard is something he had to do sooner rather than later, because some people will turn it around and say, ‘Why didn’t he do it sooner?’ As a coach, I take the blame for that.

“But to put him in that position, understanding success is the last six minutes of the game, it turns into the last three minutes, your best player is going to have the ball. Just understanding the game a little bit differently than others, I wanted to see him handle the ball earlier. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we have success. But that doesn’t deter us from trying to be better at our job. That’s how I look at it.”

Kidd wanted to challenge Flaga to see how he would react to the pressure. Although Flagg’s results weren’t ideal, the Mavericks head coach was impressed with how the 18-year-old rookie handled the situation.

“I’m not always right, but I’m not going to fail with him because I want to see him become successful. From past experiences giving the ball to others, we’ve had success and failure,” 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 amazing job.”

“The numbers will say something different, but I think as time goes on … There’s always a big picture, and sometimes in society we want now. But in the long run, we’re playing the long game with him because of his age. We just hope we want to be a part of that success story. I think he can handle it. He’s shown he can handle it.”

Flagg didn’t complain either. He is open to doing whatever he can to help the team.

“He never came to me and said he didn’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 poured into him, to be able to tell him one thing and he can deliver.”

Flegg and the Mavericks will try to get a win over the Nets on Friday.