How good will #1 pick Cooper Flagg make the Dallas Mavericks as a rookie? | 2025 NBA Draft

How good will #1 pick Cooper Flagg make the Dallas Mavericks as a rookie? | 2025 NBA Draft

cooper Flag has been the number one player in this class the entire year I have him as my second best prospect of the last decade since I’ve been doing this What to you makes Cooper Flag such a special prospect for the Dallas Mavericks
I mean it starts with the talent Sam and obviously the talent has been showing since he was in high school I think another thing that’s always important to bring up with Cooper and we’ll talk about this with prospects throughout the night is also the age This was a young freshman because he reclassed And so when you talk about continuing to grow his body grow his game emotionally even though he’s very mature or seems to be a very mature player So it’s all of those things I was just looking at synergy The the shooting was a question coming into the season He shot 39% on catch and shoot He shot 41% on dribble three-pointers And so he answered those questions He’s a defender I truly think it’s the intangibles And I know people don’t always like the buzzwords and the coaching cliches and those type of things but it’s just like how many of these type of guys take charges dive on the floor play with the intensity he does all the time And I guess for me I buy into those things in terms of being valuable for one we just saw it in the NBA finals with two different teams that really relied on that type of play from their players but also his continued progression and growth That’s all I can take from like that’s all I know about him is what I see on the court in game situations And so my thought process is if he’s willing to play like this in games I assume he’s willing to practice like this to grow his game and become the level of player that the number one pick is expected to become
Yeah look I can confirm that like I’ve talked I talked to John Shire in the preseason so even before you know all of this happened right And the thing that he mentioned immediately was just simply that Cooper Flag with his sheer presence and intensity lifted the level of Duke practices He lifted the intensity level every single day in the room So that’s one thing for sure in terms of the actual game Like yes you’re 100% right Like the competitive character here is off the charts He grew immensely as a shot creator this year That’s the thing that really stands out to me He’s a genuine mismatch threat every time he takes the court now Uh he is somebody that seemed to dictate the game for every single second he was on the court which is what is almost impressive to me Like you would watch him and he’d be like almost processing what was happening on the court for the first five to six minutes of the game He typically didn’t like come out just like like gang busters like going and going crazy right But it did feel like he was just generally kind of supercomputing the entire thing right He was like “Okay this is what’s happening This is the way that they’re covering This is what they will do if I go here This is what they will do if I go there.” And he figured out very quickly on the fly the best way to attack and beat the defense consistently Um this was really the first year and a half or so including the last year at Mont Verde was I would argue his first year like being responsible for creating the advantages consistently and collapsing defenses consistently uh at Duke And he was fantastic They’d use him as a pick and roll ball handler They’d use him like as an iso threat when he get switches Like he could attack bigs in space he could attack guards on the block The thing that I love about him though more than anything is that he is elite at the little things Kind of like Pascal Seakkum where he will get 8 to 10 points a game running the court hard cutting back door getting offensive rebounds filling transition lanes like he he just kind of does it all and puts himself in good spots through working hard is what’s so interesting about him So yeah Cooper Flag is outstanding We haven’t even gotten to the defense yet He’s an outstanding defender Uh great team defender unbelievable in terms of being able to rotate around His anticipation is fantastic Uh I I couldn’t be more excited to see what Cooper Flag brings to the Dallas Mavericks Yeah I mean especially the offthe- ball defense as you mentioned he really communicates He rotates he can rim protect I love his defensive rebounding impact And I’m not just saying like the box score numbers He averaged six defensive rebounds a game but I just think he does all of the little things He comes running in from the perimeter He gets box outs on the weak sides He gets the type of defensive rebounds that are impactful and invaluable And to me when I say that Sam it’s ones that you can watch the defensive rebound or the box out or whatever and say that took away an offensive rebound How often do we talk about the possession game during the playoffs in the NBA finals Yes that is steals that is blocks that is those type of things It’s also creating offensive rebounds or taking away offensive rebounds from the other team And so I think he’ll be an impactful defensive rebounder as well Back to the offensive end a little bit I love his overall versatility on the offensive end I think at the very least that’s going to make him exc successful right Like at the very least it’s cuz he can cut out the corner He can be the pick and roll roller or handler transition initiates like all of those type of things I do want to ask you this cuz we talk about his two-way play and I think rightfully so What do you think is his ultimate role position in the NBA What do you think it is early with this Mavericks team that is frontloaded in the front court And how much overall matchup versatility do you think Cooper Flag has Not switchability but like what matchups can he take
Just to confirm Cooper Flag has officially become the number one overall pick uh and is shaking Adam Silver’s hand Uh yeah look I think the onball defense is interesting I do worry about him getting leveraged a little bit against like athletic guards who might be able to get by him but the effort is so strong It’s so high level uh that I think he’s probably going to be okay on that end in terms of being able to switch In terms of the matchups like I almost want him guarding the opposing team’s worst player so that he can fly around and be the you know crazy uh anticipation you know havocinducing help defender that he was so special at being when he was at Mont Verde and when he was with USA basketball right He got to do that a little bit at Duke this year I will be interested to see if they utilize him that way at all in Dallas And it’s just worth noting the Dallas fit as well Um I think I’m a little bit more excited about the Dallas Fit than most people are I think that getting him into a scheme early that is going to allow him to be competitive and this team should allow him to be competitive with Anthony Davis with Daniel Gaffford with Derek Lively with PJ Washington whenever Kyrie gets back from his injury obviously Klay Thompson there as well I think they’re going to be really good Uh I think they’re going to be really good quickly in all honesty Uh I I am a fan of the like the process here was catastrophic trading Luca Donic and ending up with this pick when you had a 1% chance or whatever it was to get to this pick I mean Nico Harrison should not get any flowers here by any stretch of the imagination But yeah I mean it is very very interesting that they now have set up the exact team that they wanted in terms of like defensive identity and everything and and we’re in a really positive position now if you’re the Dallas Mavericks and you’re a Dallas Mavericks fan that they’re going to be able to really kind of execute this vision that Nico had
I I think it is I agree with you Um this is something like we’ve actually talked about with Scotty Barnes defensively where we don’t love him trying to guard the other team’s best player We love him playing as this offball defender that can be really good in that role I’m interested to see how much Cooper gets to play that role because there’s certain lineups where he’s absolutely going to right When he’s at the four and AD is at the five and AD is guarding the primary ball screen actions or whatever then Cooper can play off and do exactly what we’re talking about I wonder how that shakes out in lineups where Cooper is at the three AD is at the four and Lively or Gafford is at the five and then how Dallas decides to use that right And maybe maybe this is a zone team all of a sudden You know we talked about you know they lost Sean Sweeney the other day so they’re going to have a new defensive mind on that coaching staff it seems like And so cuz my understanding is Sweeney did a lot of that for the Mavericks So I’m inter I will just be interested I I don’t think it’s going to be bad I’m just interested to see how whoever gets tasked with that finds a way to work the lineups and then work the defensive matchups to play to each of these guys strengths Couple of questions here from folks Uh thanks for the super chats Shout out to you guys Um is Cooper that much better of a prospect than Luca Look the reality about what Luca was as a prospect is that there was just a lot of back in like 20 2018 was that I believe 2018 is the Luca draft I think there was just a lot of uncertainty maybe is the way to put it around how to evaluate European players back then because the track record of top five European picks like it was basically Pow Gasol within the previous 20 years that had been successful and that was it like Skiddish Villi Barnani Dragon Bender like you can go through and it was a long track record Luca was drastically better than all of these guys and was the Euro League MVP as a teenager and obviously like was way better It’s just that people didn’t really know how to evaluate that at the time So like was is he that much better than Luca as a prospect I think the actuality of what Luca was as a prospect is very clearly better But I just think that the perception of what Luca was as a prospect didn’t match what the reality was I I think is the fairest way to put it

Sam Vecenie & Bryce Simon discuss Cooper Flagg going #1 in the 2025 NBA Draft to the Dallas Mavericks.

Follow Sam:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/sam_vecenie
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sam_vecenie/
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@sam_vecenie

Follow Game Theory:
TWITTER – https://x.com/GameTheorySamV
INSTAGRAM – https://www.instagram.com/GameTheorySamV
TIKTOK -https://www.tiktok.com/GameTheorySamV
THREADS – https://www.threads.net/@gametheorysamv
BLUESKY – https://bsky.app/profile/gametheorysamv.bsky.social

Listen on Audio
Apple- https://bit.ly/3SpkHFJ
Spotify- https://bit.ly/3OvPvU2

Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.