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Cooper Flagg should be smiling on Monday.
The Dallas Mavericks have hired the man who could help build a championship roster around the NBA's Rookie of the Year.
Masai Ujiri is being hired as the Mavericks' president and alternate governor, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
Ujiri led the Toronto Raptors' front office for a dozen years, with his brightest work being putting together the group that won the 2019 NBA title.
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Flagg, on the other hand, is coming off a rookie season where he could see Nico Harrison's messy fingerprints all around him.
The Mavs may not have won the lottery and gotten Flagg if Harrison hadn't made the nightmare Luka Doncic trade with the Lakers. But once they got Flagg, the roster didn't really fit around him.
Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving were part of a totally different plan for contention than the one that Flagg quickly brought to the forefront. And the group around them wasn't talented enough.
That led to the midseason trade of AD to the Wizards, and it could lead to eventual Irving trade speculation, too.
Ujiri hasn't been brought in for a simple fix, but for a full-on creation that can compete in the brutal Western Conference.
The good news is that Flagg can be his foundation. But there's work to do around that.
If Ujiri can display the same roster-building expertise he did in Toronto, this story can end with Flagg as an NBA champion.
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