Cooper Flagg showed his Next Level in the Mavs loss to the Spurs in Summer league

Cooper Flagg showed his Next Level in the Mavs loss to the Spurs in Summer league

This is the next step for Cooper Flag. The Mavs lose in summer league against the Spurs, but Cooper Flag comes out 31 points. 10 of 20 from the field. Another game where he takes 20 shots in this game. Last game he took 21 and he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever taken that many shots.” Well, he does it again in this one. Got to the free throw line 13 times as well. Hit eight of those. And that was kind of the key for him is to get downhill to start getting to the bucket a little bit and to start taking advantage of the pressure that the guys were were putting on him from the Spurs. The Spurs defense was swarming in that game and they were very physical. coach after the game mentioned that you got 10 fouls and they sure did use them. Every time that you have the ball, it you’re not really penalized for fouling, for grabbing, for, you know, for swiping at the ball and missing and all that. We saw Carter Bryant of the Spurs really hold Cooper Flag early. A couple of early turnovers, but then Cooper Flag only finished with two turnovers total. This is somebody that is not a point guard, but they’re putting him in this position to try and help him grow, to get him to the next level, and he’s handled it really well. Cooper Flag said after the game about his ball handling, how he’s handled all this that he said he’s I’ve done solid, but there’s more work to be done and there’s he can always get better and that kind of thing. But it was interesting to hear him talk about how he got gassed at this game that Carter Bryant was picking him up 94 feet. He said, “Man, he didn’t look tired this whole time. I was kind of gassed by the end of this game taking up the ball.” He said he’s not used to that. And that’s exactly what this is for, is for him to take the next step to become more of a ball handler. That’s what’s going to take him from a really good player in the in the league to an MVP level. if he can handle the ball, if he can get his own shot, create for others and all that. Mavs lose, Miles Kelly 11 points and hit a couple of threes. Everybody else, man, no show from a lot of these guys. And uh they didn’t really create a lot of shots. They shot 37% total as a team and that went up at the end of the game. Rough one for the Mavericks except Cooper Flag showing the star that he