The first day of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is always a primetime event, where top prospects are pitted against each other while the entire NBA world watches, typically from inside the Thomas and Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. This year, the first true primetime slot — 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, July 10 — belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cooper Flagg-led Dallas Mavericks.
Flagg was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, joining a Mavericks team led by head coach Jason Kidd and still under significant fire from its own fanbase for trading away Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Now, Flagg’s first look on an NBA-related stage will be against those Lakers, who will be led by second-year guard Bronny James and second round draft pick Adou Thiero.
At Flagg’s introductory press conference, Kidd discussed the concept of their new young star being a positionless player on both ends of the floor. And to kick that off, he wants to play Flagg as a point guard in the Summer League opener vs. L.A., via Underdog:
"I'm excited about giving him the ball against the Lakers and see what happens. Let's get it started right off the bat" 😂
-Jason Kidd on Cooper Flagg pic.twitter.com/yX0940qgnW
— Underdog (@Underdog) June 27, 2025
Flagg is going to spend some of his NBA minutes at the technical point guard position, which simply means that he’ll be conducting the offense. Especially with Kyrie Irving slated to miss a majority of the 2025-26 season with a torn ACL.
So there’s no better place to start the experiment of playing Flagg as a point guard than at Summer League. And Flagg being a point guard with his size and skillset is almost reminiscent of Doncic, who did the same thing with the Mavericks for years and is now doing so with the Lakers.
Matchups between Dallas and L.A. are going to have that extra layer of intrigue for years to come, and it starts on July 10 with the Las Vegas Summer League opener. It will be interesting to see if James sees some time on Flagg if he is Dallas’ point guard, or if the Lakers still put someone bigger on him like second-round draft pick Adou Thiero.
Lakers 2025 Las Vegas Summer League Schedule
With the 2025 NBA Draft all finished, the time for Summer League is coming up fast for the Lakers and the rest of the NBA. Of course, all 30 NBA teams will take part in the Las Vegas Summer League and, as usual, the Lakers will also play in the California Classic at Chase Center beforehand.
Once they get to Las Vegas though, the Lakers will be in some premier matchups as the league has released the entire schedule.
July 10: vs. Mavericks at 5 p.m. PT on ESPN
July 12: vs. Pelicans at 5:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2
July 14: vs. Clippers at 7:30 p.m. PT on NBA TV
July 17: vs. Celtics at 6 p.m. PT on ESPN
July 19-20: TBD
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