2025 NBA Summer League Preview: Cooper Flagg’s Mavs Debut vs. Bronny & the Lakers 👀

2025 NBA Summer League Preview: Cooper Flagg’s Mavs Debut vs. Bronny & the Lakers 👀

Back here on HQ, the NBA Summer League rolls on in the Sin City where we will finally get our first look at the number one overall pick in Cooper Flag as the Mavs face off with Bronny James and the Lakers. Now, if you’re interesting in checking out this game, I hope you have deep pockets because tickets are going for 650 bucks to sit in the lower bowl. And if you’re really balling like that, you can drop a casual 3K to sit courtside, maybe get lucky, sit next to LeBron James. Either way, these two will tip off at 8 o’clock Eastern tomorrow from Las Vegas. And who else to get us ready for the summer league action than our NBA analyst in John Gonzalez. John, the grind never stops. Whether it’s you or Cooper Flag, whoever it is, Cooper set to make his summer league debut tomorrow, fresh off that Final Four run with Duke. We’re going to talk about him more in a minute. But first, John, $650 to sit lower bowl to watch him and Bronny. Are you buying a ticket? I mean, who is? No, I don’t have that kind of money. Uh maybe you have that kind of money. I know you have a big contract at CBS. Uh, it sounds like a lot of fun, but I’m not shelling that out for summer league. Are we talking about summer league here, Haley? That’s outrageous. Normally, under normal circumstances, you get the first pick in the draft versus the second pick in the draft for the first summer league game. But the league looked around and went, “No, no, no. Dylan Harper, thank you so much. We’ll get to you in a second.” The big draw here quite obviously is Cooper Flag and oh yeah, if we could just sprinkle in a little Brownie James. Now all of a sudden, those courtside seats, we can get $3,000 for them. I think that’s pretty outrageous. But, uh, the league loves those eyeballs, the clicks, the conversations. Cooper’s a big-time talent. And then Bronny has the name. So, sure. Yeah. I mean, if you’ve got that kind of cash, do it. I will say that the average cost of tickets is looking to be closer than two closer to $200 for comparison. John, when Victor Wimyama made his summer league debut, they were about $297. So, uh, they do get kind of pricey. Um, but yeah, 650 is too much for me. I’m definitely not sitting courtside unless I’m guaranteed to sit next to LeBron and some cool folks watching it. But listen, everyone is excited to watch Cooper Flag regardless of where they’re sitting. And we know that head coach Jason Kidd has spoke a lot about Cooper Flag getting comfortable as a point guard. We kind of have grown to love him as a two-way star. So from your perspective, what does success look like for Cooper Flag in the summer league? Yeah, summer league is one of those situations where if you play well, that’s just sort of a baseline. That’s an entry point, right? you feel kind of good about it and off you go. If you don’t play well, especially if you’re the number one pick, all of a sudden that’s red flags. Now, there’s an exception to every rule, right? A guy like Trey Young, famously did not have a good summer league, has gone on to have a pretty good career. You know, your mileage may vary on his defense, but he is still a pretty good player. Uh with Cooper Flag, I would I would be looking for things like, okay, well, uh Jason Kit has said we might get some point Cooper flag because as we know, Kyrie, he’s got an ACL injury. He’s going to be out for some time. They signed D’Angelo Russell to the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is the smaller one under $6 million. He’s basically the only point guard that they have on the team. Haley, the only guy who’s guaranteed to be able to dribble. Tell me about it, John. Yeah, right. I know. You know, so as sort of like a necessity now, all of a sudden, we’re going to see, oh, Cooper flag with the ball in his hands. How comfortable will he be? Beyond that, what’s it look like when he’s doing some of the intangibles like rebounding, running the floor? What’s his passing vision look like? Is he in the right spots on defense? By all accounts, he’s a generational talent and he should fit in just fine. But this is our first look at him. So, all eyeballs on your guy and your team, Cooper Flag, with the Mets. I don’t I don’t know how it feels to have so much spotlight on the Mavericks. It’s been a minute since uh we felt so high and so confident on them. Uh when it comes to Cooper Flag though, John, we’ve seen the odds. We’ve heard what everyone has said about him. He is the favorite to win rookie of the year. And again, we are having this conversation knowing that they are playing in summer league. This is not like the NBA championship, so we know what the stakes are here. Is there a world where maybe we see those odds move given how some of these rookies perform uh when it comes to the rookie of the year race? Yeah, I mean like there’s been some hype around VJ Edge come after that one game because he looked ridiculously athletic. I mean like his athleticism was definitely hyped up and and it looked like it was the real deal. I would expect the Cooper flag is going to be the heavy favorite all season long here just because he’s going to have an opportunity to step in and play and start with a team that has designs on making the playoffs, keeping themselves afloat until Kyrie Irving comes back and then potentially doing something significant from there. So he he should get good minutes, valuable minutes for a team that should be pretty good. I mean like a guy like Trey Johnson in Washington, he’s going to get up all the shots that he could possibly get. Ace Bailey similarly. Uh, but you know, I don’t think that any of these players, even a Dylan Harper with San Antonio, I don’t think any of these players are going to be at the same level as Cooper Flag in terms of the betting line. Unless Cooper Flag really falls off or, god forbid, there was an injury or something like that, it should be Cooper Flag moving forward as the heavy favorite. All right, we’ll keep our eye on the race. Mavs Lakers tipping off tomorrow night, 8:00 Eastern. You mentioned Dylan Harper. We have still been waiting to see uh his debut in the summer league and it sounds like it’s trending a little bit that way when it comes to Dylan Harper and the Spurs. We know he missed the California Classic. He was dealing with I believe it was a groin injury. Uh but there’s some early expectations when it comes to Dylan Harper here. So, how can he sort of set the tone in this summer league in Vegas, John? Yeah, with the California Classic, I think it was just an abundance of caution, as they like to say. Uh the anticipation is that Dylan Harper will play in Las Vegas. And look, there was a clear number one in Cooper Flag and then there was a clear number two in Dylan Harper. I mean, really, nobody else was even mentioned as the number two pick to San Antonio to the extent that Haley before Kevin Durant moved to the Rockets. There were talks about potentially rumors potentially that the Spurs might be interested in getting KD, but the Spurs initially shut that down pretty quickly, saying, “We’re not going to move the number two pick. We’re not going to move Stfan Castle either. We like this idea of having a nice young backcourt with Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper and then pairing them with De’Aran Fox could be a little crowded there, but in terms of the timeline that they’d be on with Victor Wanyama, that really sets them up for the long term. They’re super super high on Dylan Harper. So, things that we would be looking for, you know, how he looks when he gets out there with that groin injury potentially, uh, if he looks healthy. He’s not super athletic, but what makes him special is that Del game. He’s really good at slowing down, getting a guy on his hip, and then moving from there. the lateral quickness, his hesitation, and then also because of the back court being so crowded in San Antonio, is he going to play primarily on the ball, off the ball, a little combination of both? Uh, so this is a good start for him. We’ll see how he gets going. Do you expect him to be a starter? Yeah, that’s a good question, right? I mean, like they have to decide. So, for sure you’re going to have De’Arren Fox as a starter, but then who’s the best compliment alongside De’arren Fox? Is it Stfan Castle, who was last year’s rookie of the year, or is it Dylan Harper? Guess Stefan Castle would have a slight leg up as the rookie of the year, but maybe he’s better as uh the guy running the second unit coming off the bench. Maybe there’s also some units where you’re running all three guys out there. There might be some spacing issues there because De’ar Fox isn’t a great shooter. Neither is Stefan Castle. And if you’re going to play three guards, you’d really want one or two of them ideally to be fantastic shooters. But this is all part of the fun of figuring out how the Spurs are going to go about this moving forward. Good news is we’ve got plenty of time before we get to October. Let’s get to a duo who could be a lot of fun in a city that desperately needs some. Of course, talking about the New Orleans Pelicans as they get ready to roll out Derek Queen alongside Jeremiah Fears, the fellow rookie there. And remember, John, this is a guy um that they traded up to get uh when it comes to um when it comes to their player there. So, Derek Queen, thank you. I was having a mix there. Either way, when you look at Derrick Queen, what are the expectations for him? We saw him with the Crab Five. How can he be a bright spot for the Pelicans? As I mentioned, they desperately need it. Yeah, they do desperately need it, Haley, because they traded up from 23-13 to get a center who doesn’t space the floor. I mean, look, Joe Dumar is the new GM in New Orleans. He’s been out of the game for a while. He’s highly regarded, but I think that the game has really evolved. And maybe Joe Dumar hasn’t. He came in and he said, “Look, we’re going to be really aggressive. That’s why we did this.” Okay, but you gave up next year’s unprotected first round pick to get a guy who doesn’t space the floor. I’m unsure how he fits alongside Zion Williamson and Eve missing. Now you mentioned Jeremiah Fears, he’s a guard they can desperately use because Dejonte Murray is recovering from that Achilles injury, right? But with respect to Derek Queen, unless this kid is like an allstar or better, that’s the baseline. This trade is going to look really bad because that unprotected first next year is the better of either New Orleans who’s in the loaded Western Conference and is like at best fighting for a playin probably without Dejonte Murray as they try to get him back or uh the better of the Milwaukee Bucks pick and the Bucks. Yes, they went and stretched Dame Lillard and yes, they went and added Miles Turner, but I think that that’s just prolonging the inevitable trying to keep Giannis onto Topa around. I I have them maybe fighting for a play as well. So, whatever that pick ends up being, it looks like it’s going to be pretty good. And you did it all for Derek Queen. And this is not the kid’s fault. Seems like a nice guy. Probably going to have a nice career, but he has to be better than just nice. He has to be better than just a rotation player for this to look anything like it should have happened. I think Joe Dumour has really stepped in it here and he put a lot of pressure on Derek Queen. Yeah, I mean, rolling the dice, go big or go home, I guess, is what they say. So, we’ll have to see how it works out. We also know the Thunder will be in action in Las Vegas. They take on the Brooklyn Nets and all five of their first rounders. Um, but the bigger story, John, obviously Chad Homegrren gets that rookie max extension. So, he’s going to make up to $250 million over the next few years or so. They just paid SGA as well. How scary are the Thunder looking right now in the future? Yeah, super scary. Also, their books are a little scary, but this is something that Sam prey has planned for because you mentioned SGAA, the MVP, they won a championship. Take all their money, right? They’re happy to pay SGA gets four for 285 supermax. Then they’re barreling towards this extension with Chad Homegrren. Happy to pay him. He’s only 23. He’s one of their three core players, right? I think he has DPOI potential, defensive player of the year potential outside of the, you know, Victor Webbyama division, right? He might be their second best player, Haley. And that’s including Jaylen Williams, another guy who has to get paid who just is coming off a career year where he made his first All-Star, his first AllNBA, and his first all defense. They’re going to max him out as well. So now, yes, they’re super scary. They’ve got their core locked up for the foreseeable future. The problem becomes what do you do about some of these other ancillary pieces that have also helped you win a championship. That’s the reason why they went and drafted a guy like Thomas Sorber center with the 15th overall pick because of this cap crunch. You saw what happened with the Boston Celtics where they had to disassemble their team uh without Jason Tatum. They were like, “Forget it. We’re not going to pay $500 million for this team.” Similarly with Oklahoma City. This is probably going to be the last year of Isaiah Hartinstein who they just got from the Knicks. He only had one year with them. and this will be his second year. Going forward, they’re probably not going to be able to pay him. So, what you do is you have all these draft picks that they’ve been stockpiling that Sam Presley’s been stockpiling. Guys like Nicola Topic, who didn’t play at all last year with an ACL, and you just kind of like add them to the end of your bench as you push some of these other guys who you like a lot like Isaiah Hartenstein, but are probably a little too expensive because you have to pay your big three. It is always moving parts when it comes to assembling a championship team, but it feels like OKC has the recipe at the minute. Our John Gonzalez breaking it all down with summer league and all of the things in free agency. John, we certainly appreciate the time. As you take a look at the upcoming NBA dates, of course, the summer league continues in Vegas. It goes through the 20th and then we start to get to the fun part of the season, the preseason getting underway early October as you look at all of the scheduled events in the association.

John Gonzalez joins CBS Sports HQ to preview the 2025 NBA Summer League.

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