Are people lower on Cooper Flagg?

[Braggins]

Flagg isn't as good of a prospect as Luka and Luka was also a year older his rookie season. Flagg is still a better prospect than any prospect from the 2026 class. Hes the same age as the freshman players from the 2026 class because he reclassified. Imagine him playing at Duke this season instead of in the NBA, or imagine how much worse Peterson/Dybantsa/Boozer would look if they were playing in the NBA currently instead of NCAA.

[Rainwater]

He will be fine. There are some rookies that just dominate out the gate and there others who just takes time. He is the latter.

[FrodoBaggins]

He will be fine. There are some rookies that just dominate out the gate and there others who just time. He is the latter.

True. Jokic, Giannis, SGA. Hard to predict a player's progression. Some early bloomers hit a ceiling/wall and don't continue to progress, while late bloomers make small but steady incremental improvements year-on-year and end up reaching greater heights.

[Lalouie]

Luka was a Euroleague MVP at 18 and had been instrumental in helping tiny Slovenia win the entire Eurobasket before he had even stepped on an NBA court. As much as the term is overused Luka qualified as a truly 'generational' Euro prospect. Expecting Luka level production from a player who is a year younger than everyone else and had no pro experience coming in isn't fair.

Flagg will be fine. This is the worst he's going to be. And he wasn't thrown into the greatest situation and is still showing some flashes. Apparently Kyrie is the only player on the team trying to help mentor him too despite how many vets there are on that team. He's riding 8 consecutive double digit scoring games, four more and he breaks LeBron's record for consecutive double digit games before the age of 19

just how many vets are there on that team that you could entrust to teach flagg in the first place

[Bad Bart]

I'm glad no one is overreacting to 12 games into one of the youngest players to ever enter the league's career.

[Ayt]

I am guessing most thought he was suppose to come in like Luka and be dominating by the end of the first few weeks of his rookie season

More people are putting him into B tier star ceiling status.
Even some on Reddit are saying he would have gone 5 or 6th next years class because of how talented it is.

Honestly I've seen him make rookie mistakes but the dude to me has the it factor. I mean it ain't Luka it factor but the dude is going to be good.

Peoples thoughts so far?

I think Cooper Flagg is performing exactly to my expectation. I expected him to average around 15-20 points, but struggled at 3 point range. I was never sold on his 3 point shot. He wasn't even a great 3 point shooter even in high school. He only got hot in college in the later half and bump his percentage up. But he is performing exactly what I expect.

Once Flagg gets one year under his belt, I expect him to be a yearly 20+ point scorer, getting 5 rebounds and 5 assists. He'll be fine.

Comparing him to the 2026 class, I would take him over Boozer. But I think I would take Peterson and maybe Dybantsa over Flagg.

5 rebounds? He's averaging 7 now as a scrawny 18 year old.

[GrandTheftRondo]

He’s fine. As good of a prospect as he is, Luka was simply different gravy, people just didn’t realise it at the time.

He was ready to carry an offence from day one because he’d been doing it in the Euroleague and in juniors before that whereas Flagg is more of a defensive guy who slowly developed in college offensively.

Nico Harrison was probably the only deluded isiot who thought Flagg could come in and lead an offence day one like Luka

[Andri]

As other people pointed out, he has great potential, he is very very young, and if he develops, his time will come eventually. But I wouldn't expect him to be very good (top30) until year 3, and not making a splash until year 5, if ever.

[FrodoBaggins]

Comparing 2025-26 rookies as PnR Ball Handlers:

Flagg: 0.74 ppp on 3.9 poss/g
Kon: 0.77 ppp on 2.0 poss/g
Coward: 0.81 ppp on 1.8 poss/g
Fears: 0.85 ppp on 5.5 poss/g
Harper: 0.68 ppp on 3.7 poss/g
Edgecombe: 0.58 ppp on 3.7 poss/g
Tre Johnson: 1.03 ppp on 2.8 poss/g
Demin: 0.71 ppp on 2.1 poss/g

Consider the quality of spacing and overall team offense these players are working in. Dallas has a historically bad offense (-10.8 rORtg) with horrific spacing (30th in 3PM, 23rd in 3PA, 29th in 3PT%, 21st in 3PAr). Cooper's offensive stats and performance should be looked at through this lens, acknowledging this extreme context. He's actually been better than D'Angelo Russell (0.55 ppp, 4.8 poss/g) and not far off B. Williams (0.84 ppp, 3.4 poss/g).

It's just a tough ask to compare him to Luka as a PnR ball handler, who's a legitimate PG. For comparison, Doncic did 0.89 ppp (69th percentile) on 8.7 poss/g (97th percentile) as a rookie in 2018-19. By year 2 (2019-20), he was basically what he is now: 1.04 ppp (95th percentile) on 13.3 poss/g (99th percentile). Career marks of 1.0 ppp (86th percentile) on 11.2 poss/g (99th percentile).

But Cooper isn't a PG, so the comparison isn't great. He's a point forward, which is more in line with LeBron and Tatum. Here's what their numbers look like:

2014-2025 LeBron (0.94 ppp [79th percentile] on 5.4 poss/g [85th percentile])
2018-2025 Tatum (0.95 ppp [77th percentile] on 5.0 poss/g [79th percentile])

Those are healthier marks to aim for that fit his position and archetype of a two-way point forward. Franz did 0.94 ppp on 6.4 poss/g last season and has a career mark of 0.90 ppp on 5.1 poss/g.

[Statlanta]

He's not an offensive leader like Doncic or a defensive system like Wembanyama. He's just a normal forward prospect. Can do everything but doesn't blow you out with one thing.

[pepe1991]

Luka took Clippers to 7 games, who later went to play WCF, at age of 21, while outplaying former finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and at times still viewed as top 10 player Paul George. In very same series where Porzingis was complete no show and Brunson was young role player.

At 22 he was in WCF.

Flagg is nice player, with high upside, but in landscape of current nba, where ball handler is by far most important position in basketball, he is bit overrated. I still think that hype about him would be 3 times lower, if he is from Finland, Slovenia or Bosnia and his name is Flagović.
But his skin color along with nationality played major factor in hype.

USA simply does not produce superstar white players. And in Caitlin Clark case we saw how much it means for NBA brand.


Current reality of Flagg, as player, is him averaging some 15-18 ppg on trash team, on pretty ugly efficiency, given hype.

Flagg isn't generational talent. He isn't even 80% of talent Victor is. Luka will for damn sure win some MVP and given he is on Lakers and how impactful they are on FA market, probably win some titles. Flagg? Dallas is in bad spot, with very hard task getting out of bad spot. They will need a lot to fix current mess.

Flagg today , as prospect is way closer to Franz Wagner than most people are ready to admit. Defensive, versatile 6'10 forward with shaky outside jumper, good cuts, great understanding of basketball, and good athlete with slashing ability. But simply lacking self-creativity, passing chops and pure talent to be on Victor/ SGA / Jokić level.

[FrodoBaggins]

Cooper's shooting better on pull-up threes for some reason. Kind of like Wemby's rookie season.

Pull-up: 37.5% on 2.0 3pa/g
Catch-and-shoot: 20% on 2.1 3pa/g

[Archx]

He's going to be amazing. Anyone watching Mavs games knows that. Dude is already an incredible defensive player at 18yo. Offensive efficiency never really mattered with rookies but he's showing he's not afraid of the moment and knows how to get to the rim or get his shots up.

[bonita_the_frog]

Flagg's numbers keep going up, so his 15.1ppg will probably be about 17ppg or 18ppg by January, and about 20ppg by season's end.

And his FG% (.421) is already the same as rookie Doncic (.427).
And his 3pt% (.286) will probably be about the same as rookie Doncic (.327) by season's end.

The only area that I'm sure Flagg won't be the same as rookie Doncic, is assists (Flagg currently 3.3, rookie Doncic 6.0), but Flagg's turnovers (2.3) are a lot lower than rookie Doncic (3.4) at least.

Oh and Flagg is stealing (1.4) and blocking (0.8) a lot better than rookie Doncic (1.1, 0.3), as expected.

[dirkdiggler4177]

People need to watch the games... Just look at how rookies' numbers go up and down. Edgecomb is averaging 10points in the last 6 games, but started the first 5 games with 21points on 50% shooting. Meanwhile, Ace Bailey is averaging 16points on 52% in the last 4 games; in his first 8 games, it was 5ppg on 32%.

Flagg stats:

First 6 games:
13.8 PTS (37.3 / 28.6 / 100.0) 6.5 REB, 3.0 AST, 0.8 STL, 0.5 BLK, 1.8 TOV, 32.7 MIN

Last 6 games:
16.3 PTS (46.4 / 28.6 / 63.2) 7.0 REB, 3.7 AST, 2.0 STL, 1.0 BLK, 2.8 TOV, 33.2 MIN

His scouting showed he did not have any flaws in his game, but he did not have any liker super strengths. He got motor, he got a great understanding of the game, knows when to attack, uses the screens well, anticipates very well on defense, is athletic, but does not rest on it, has a soft touch, and uses his body well, and has a great attitude.

He has struggled with the mid-range pull-up, but he uses it very well; he gets a lot of spacing and is not moving too fast. A player of his caliber will develop this, no doubt. He needs the reps.

Imo, he is basically flawless, but he's not super great at anything. Like he does not have Westbrook motor, he does not have Julius Randle face forward in the paint attack, not AK-47 shotblocking. At the same time, he does not have any of those players' faults (considering he is a rookie)

By the way, he is the youngest player to score 26+ points in a game.

[Patches Perry]

You look for two things in guys as young as him:
1) Flashes of greatness
2) A general upward trend over bigger sample sizes

He'll be fine.

[og15]

He had that week to week and a half of really rough play. You’d forget he was out on the court for large chunks of time (on both ends). And I think some other rookies were hot at this time, which didn’t help Flagg look even better.

But I’ll say after a few lineup changes (Klay to the bench and Williams to starting PG), like they’re not winning, but at least it looks like they’re kind of playing like a team. Compared to some of the ugliest offense I’ve ever seen, from earlier in the season.

And with that I think Flagg has looked like the best rookie. His jumper is off, but outside of that. He looked pretty good as a secondary ball handler, he’s hitting the boards again, he’s making plays on defense averaging 3.5 stocks over the last 5.

I think he ends up running away with ROTY

It's not even that his jumper is off. It's pretty clear already he can shoot despite the percentages. He gets almost no good catch and shoot opportunities because the offense is so lousy. Jaden Hardy and Max Christie are the only two players on the team shooting 3s at 30% or better

I mean of all people, Kidd should be aware of why teams need point guards, but he was just out there doing who knows what. Klay also is a guy who needs to be set up, no wonder Klay is also much worse offensively so far

People need to watch the games... Just look at how rookies' numbers go up and down. Edgecomb is averaging 10points in the last 6 games, but started the first 5 games with 21points on 50% shooting. Meanwhile, Ace Bailey is averaging 16points on 52% in the last 4 games; in his first 8 games, it was 5ppg on 32%.

Flagg stats:

First 6 games:
13.8 PTS (37.3 / 28.6 / 100.0) 6.5 REB, 3.0 AST, 0.8 STL, 0.5 BLK, 1.8 TOV, 32.7 MIN

Last 6 games:
16.3 PTS (46.4 / 28.6 / 63.2) 7.0 REB, 3.7 AST, 2.0 STL, 1.0 BLK, 2.8 TOV, 33.2 MIN

His scouting showed he did not have any flaws in his game, but he did not have any liker super strengths. He got motor, he got a great understanding of the game, knows when to attack, uses the screens well, anticipates very well on defense, is athletic, but does not rest on it, has a soft touch, and uses his body well, and has a great attitude.

He has struggled with the mid-range pull-up, but he uses it very well; he gets a lot of spacing and is not moving too fast. A player of his caliber will develop this, no doubt. He needs the reps.

Imo, he is basically flawless, but he's not super great at anything. Like he does not have Westbrook motor, he does not have Julius Randle face forward in the paint attack, not AK-47 shotblocking. At the same time, he does not have any of those players' faults (considering he is a rookie)

By the way, he is the youngest player to score 26+ points in a game.

People just need to give things time. NBA is a long season, we're like 10% in, obviously we can talk about what we are observing, but people too often want to make projections and predictions way too early.

[tsherkin]

Flagg seems fine to me. Looks good. Looks rookie-ish. Non-ideal situation. Coach isn't deploying him in the best possible way. Roster's a bit rough and not ideally supporting him.

Effort is there. Athleticism is there. Attitude is there. Skills are evident. Jumper's coming around. Showing signs on D.

Not a lot to complain about from where I'm standing. I've said it before, but even Lebron and KD shot 41.7% and 43.0% respectively from the field as rookies when playing somewhat out of position as teenagers. Flagg is YOUNG. He won't even be 19 for like another 5 weeks. Lebron was similar, but much more of a physical freak. KD turned 19 in late September of his rookie year, so before the season actually began. Little differences like that matter.

He's fine. It's a dozen games into the season. He's averaging like 17/7/4 PER36, is a net positive defender and is shooting over 80% at the line.

He's gonna be okay.

[maverick_41]

Come on, only Michael Carter Williams had a way better start than Cooper. There are no reg flags on the horizon. To hard to predict his ceiling but he will be OK for sure.

[sikma42]

Think he looks fine and has a lot of interesting tools. As far as expectations, I kept hearing he is the best non-Wemby prospect since Leborn. We will see there (KD, AD etc were good) but he should def be an all star player