Cooper Flagg

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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1661 » by FrodoBaggins » Thu Mar 6, 2025 1:23 am

Duke4life831 wrote:I know Flagg's shooting splits since he turned 18 has been a big talking point.

But his facilitating and lack of mistakes has been huge as well. Over the last month he's had a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio while averaging 4 assists per game. And over the last 6 games he has a ridiculous 30 assists to just 3 turnovers.

He's been ridiculously amazing on the offensive end

Jimmy Butler-esque.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1662 » by zero rings » Thu Mar 6, 2025 1:55 am

Ice Man wrote:OK, we're getting off track here. There are two questions with Flagg -

1) As an 18 year old player, how does he compare to other players of his age?
2) How much will he improve in the future?

The answer to #1 is, he might be the best 17/18 year old ever. I mean, there's no proper comparison to Flagg, because anybody else you mention was in HS at that age. But he is surely a contender for the "best ever" crown.

The answer to #2, in contrast, is wide open. Personally, I think his game/mindset is of the sort that will improve greatly, but if you feel otherwise that's OK. You might be right.


It’s hard to compare him to other 17/18 year old prospects, because those guys didn’t play college ball. If we just compare him to other freshman, he is at worst the 4th best freshman ever, behind only Zion, AD, and maybe Durant.

As for his improvement, I think it mostly comes down to his jump shot. If he can knock down ~40% of his threes in the NBA, the sky is the limit. We’re talking peak Kawhi Leonard with playmaking. If he’s a low 30’s shooter, he might plateau as a Wagner or Siakam type of scorer. A good piece for sure, but not an elite offense unto himself.

The defense and playmaking should translate no matter what.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1663 » by FrodoBaggins » Thu Mar 6, 2025 8:46 am

Do we think Cooper has NPOY locked up with Auburn losing to Texas A&M and Broome playing poorly? Two single-digit, sub-45% FG performances in a row. A strong outing against UNC will put the icing on the cake for Flagg.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1664 » by The Master » Thu Mar 6, 2025 11:06 am

zero rings wrote:As for his improvement, I think it mostly comes down to his jump shot. If he can knock down ~40% of his threes in the NBA, the sky is the limit. We’re talking peak Kawhi Leonard with playmaking. If he’s a low 30’s shooter, he might plateau as a Wagner or Siakam type of scorer. A good piece for sure, but not an elite offense unto himself.

The defense and playmaking should translate no matter what.
Flagg shooting in low 30s would be still a better scorer than Wagner or Siakam, because his FTr is amazing and very similar to Zion (~45%), Tatum had 38% FTr in college and still shoots over 6 attempts a game on regular basis in the NBA, Banchero was at 37% in Duke and averages +7 FTA as an NBA player. 7-8 FTA a game sounds like a fair projection, so him without a legit spot up shooting from 3 IMHO would be more of Jimmy Butler-type scorer.

You are obviously right that his shooting development will be crucial for his projection as a scorer overall, just pointing out how great he can be on so many levels:

- 20PPG on 61TS% as an 18yo,
- 38.2% from 3s and 82.8% from FT,
- 6.0 FTA per game
- 4.2 APG per game
- 2.2 TOV per game
- on the best offense in college

He literally checks all the boxes to project 27-7 super efficient offensive output. He projects very well as a shooter, great as a playmaker, elite as a slasher. Doesn't mean he'll reach these heights, but again - what was the last time we've seen something like that? Even ignoring Flagg being younger than any college prospect? And him being perhaps the best defender among those high-volume offensive players?

If he ends up this year on a high note - that's generational output.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1665 » by Ice Man » Thu Mar 6, 2025 2:38 pm

FrodoBaggins wrote:Do we think Cooper has NPOY locked up with Auburn losing to Texas A&M and Broome playing poorly? Two single-digit, sub-45% FG performances in a row. A strong outing against UNC will put the icing on the cake for Flagg.


I don't think that the Naismith Award considers playoff performances ... but does it incorporate league tournaments?
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1666 » by Handlez » Thu Mar 6, 2025 5:43 pm

FrodoBaggins wrote:Do we think Cooper has NPOY locked up with Auburn losing to Texas A&M and Broome playing poorly? Two single-digit, sub-45% FG performances in a row. A strong outing against UNC will put the icing on the cake for Flagg.


That's what I'm wondering.

Did Broome's recent slide cost him the POY award.

May be Cooper's now.

But I will say Broome has faced better competition.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1667 » by OriAr » Thu Mar 6, 2025 10:01 pm

Handlez wrote:
FrodoBaggins wrote:Do we think Cooper has NPOY locked up with Auburn losing to Texas A&M and Broome playing poorly? Two single-digit, sub-45% FG performances in a row. A strong outing against UNC will put the icing on the cake for Flagg.


That's what I'm wondering.

Did Broome's recent slide cost him the POY award.

May be Cooper's now.

But I will say Broome has faced better competition.

Not cost him as much as likely sealed it to Flagg.
Cooper has been the front runner since he dropped 42 points on Notre Dame, Broome also missed a couple of games which makes a difference when the race is close.
Regarding what actually counts, I am fairly sure it differs by award but generally most of the weight is given to the regular season rather than the conference tournaments (Which are short and not that meaningful when the team is ranked in the top 5 anyway).
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1668 » by FrightCoward » Thu Mar 6, 2025 11:32 pm

Bernman wrote:
Tomtolbert wrote:You are completely off base about Duncan. A few points:

Duncan first started playing basketball at age 14, and was far behind the curve compared to other kids his age in terms of experience.

He was only 17 years old as a college freshman (only 3 years after first playing the sport), and didn't turn 18 till after the season ended.

By his sophomore season, he had already become the consensus #1 pick if he decided to declare for the draft. This despite the fact that the 1995 draft was loaded with talent, especially with big men.


You're the one completely off base, & I already proved it. Flagg was 17-18 this season & is already better than Duncan in his junior yr by some measures, let alone for Duncan's debut season. That should have ended this myth you're perpetrating.

I was around for the Duncan yrs. I know the hype wasn't AS great. Obviously there was some since he went #1.


You are way off on the revisionist history surrounding Duncan. He had tons of hype and everyone knew he would be great immediately. Dude was as guaranteed a star NBA player before ever setting foot in the league as I can remember and Boston tanked HARD to get into position to draft him that season. Not landing Duncan in the lotto set their franchise back for years.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1669 » by Handlez » Sat Mar 8, 2025 10:06 pm

Broome went crazy today against top 10 team.

May get him POY.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1670 » by LakerLegend » Sun Mar 9, 2025 9:32 pm

Apparently there's a possibility OKC can get Flagg via all the picks they've acquired?

Is this via a non lottery protected pick they traded for?
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1671 » by Raps in 4 » Sun Mar 9, 2025 9:34 pm

Silver better not give the pick to the Mavs. They don't deserve it.

He can rig it for anyone else and I won't mind. Just not the Mavs.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1672 » by og15 » Sun Mar 9, 2025 9:38 pm

Raps in 4 wrote:Silver better not give the pick to the Mavs. They don't deserve it.

He can rig it for anyone else and I won't mind. Just not the Mavs.

If he doesn't rig it (which I think is dumb anyways) any lottery team can win including the Mavs, so what you're really asking for is that the league should rig it against the Mavs in case they do win, lol
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1673 » by Raps in 4 » Sun Mar 9, 2025 9:45 pm

og15 wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:Silver better not give the pick to the Mavs. They don't deserve it.

He can rig it for anyone else and I won't mind. Just not the Mavs.

If he doesn't rig it (which I think is dumb anyways) any lottery team can win including the Mavs, so what you're really asking for is that the league should rig it against the Mavs in case they do win, lol


If the Mavs are in the lottery, they're going to have ~1% chance of winning the first overall pick. If they get it, it'd be as close to indisputable evidence the draft is rigged as you can get.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1674 » by Ice Man » Sun Mar 9, 2025 10:11 pm

Why would anybody want to help the Mavs? Dallas isn't an unusually large markets and the Mavs are just another team. If the league were to rig the lottery, which of course it will not, a much wiser choice would be my Bulls, who are still the single biggest NBA brand overseas, a quarter century after their last title.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1675 » by og15 » Sun Mar 9, 2025 10:14 pm

Raps in 4 wrote:
og15 wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:Silver better not give the pick to the Mavs. They don't deserve it.

He can rig it for anyone else and I won't mind. Just not the Mavs.

If he doesn't rig it (which I think is dumb anyways) any lottery team can win including the Mavs, so what you're really asking for is that the league should rig it against the Mavs in case they do win, lol


If the Mavs are in the lottery, they're going to have ~1% chance of winning the first overall pick. If they get it, it'd be as close to indisputable evidence the draft is rigged as you can get.

1% is a 1/100 chance, that's not low enough that if you absolutely don't want it to happen you just leave it up to chance. 1/100 is not some wild odds that are impossible to happen.

Of course rigging for the Mavs doesn't even make sense, and they are probably the last team the league would want to rig the draft for.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1676 » by The Master » Sun Mar 9, 2025 10:18 pm

Ice Man wrote:Why would anybody want to help the Mavs? Dallas isn't an unusually large markets and the Mavs are just another team. If the league were to rig the lottery, which of course it will not, a much wiser choice would be my Bulls, who are still the single biggest NBA brand overseas, a quarter century after their last title.

Yeah, Knicks didn't get Zion nor Towns, no idea why they would rig draft lottery for Dallas Mavericks. Unless you believe that NBA traded Doncic to the Lakers, but that's something I wish to keep away from this topic.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1677 » by scrabbarista » Mon Mar 10, 2025 5:22 am

The Master wrote:
zero rings wrote:As for his improvement, I think it mostly comes down to his jump shot. If he can knock down ~40% of his threes in the NBA, the sky is the limit. We’re talking peak Kawhi Leonard with playmaking. If he’s a low 30’s shooter, he might plateau as a Wagner or Siakam type of scorer. A good piece for sure, but not an elite offense unto himself.

The defense and playmaking should translate no matter what.
Flagg shooting in low 30s would be still a better scorer than Wagner or Siakam, because his FTr is amazing and very similar to Zion (~45%), Tatum had 38% FTr in college and still shoots over 6 attempts a game on regular basis in the NBA, Banchero was at 37% in Duke and averages +7 FTA as an NBA player. 7-8 FTA a game sounds like a fair projection, so him without a legit spot up shooting from 3 IMHO would be more of Jimmy Butler-type scorer.

You are obviously right that his shooting development will be crucial for his projection as a scorer overall, just pointing out how great he can be on so many levels:

- 20PPG on 61TS% as an 18yo,
- 38.2% from 3s and 82.8% from FT,
- 6.0 FTA per game
- 4.2 APG per game
- 2.2 TOV per game
- on the best offense in college

He literally checks all the boxes to project 27-7 super efficient offensive output. He projects very well as a shooter, great as a playmaker, elite as a slasher. Doesn't mean he'll reach these heights, but again - what was the last time we've seen something like that? Even ignoring Flagg being younger than any college prospect? And him being perhaps the best defender among those high-volume offensive players?

If he ends up this year on a high note - that's generational output.


Yes, the wording in this post implied that the only offensive difference between Kawhi and Wagner/Siakam is a good three-point shot. That's erroneous. Your post is closer to the truth.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1678 » by scrabbarista » Mon Mar 10, 2025 5:30 am

LakerLegend wrote:Apparently there's a possibility OKC can get Flagg via all the picks they've acquired?

Is this via a non lottery protected pick they traded for?


No, I think their only unprotected pick this summer is from the Clippers.

And anyone acquiring him via trade would be like getting Luka for AD and Christie: impossible.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1679 » by knicksfan974 » Mon Mar 10, 2025 5:46 am

Ice Man wrote:Why would anybody want to help the Mavs? Dallas isn't an unusually large markets and the Mavs are just another team. If the league were to rig the lottery, which of course it will not, a much wiser choice would be my Bulls, who are still the single biggest NBA brand overseas, a quarter century after their last title.


Why would the Mavs even need the help? They got an All-NBA talent in AD, and yet another superstar in Kyrie. There are teams with much more urgent need for help.
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Re: Cooper Flagg 

Post#1680 » by Ruma85 » Tue Mar 11, 2025 12:55 pm

Life is beautiful...

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