Why Cooper Flagg Is Going To Be Great

Surprisingly, a lot of people still don’t get it.

We missed a few things during the draft, like this bit from former Golden State GM Bob Myers. Check this out:

“The unique thing about Cooper Flagg is that he impacts winning more so than a lot of players. I’m going to say something that might be controversial: Victor Wembanyama got a lot of attention being the No. 1 pick [in 2023]. I could see Cooper Flagg impacting winning more than Victor did in his rookie year. And Victor is a fantastic player.

“The reason is Cooper Flagg is as NBA-ready as they come. He guards, he defends, he blocks, he steals. It’s not the offense. … How he’s going to get on the court for Dallas and Jason Kidd is what he does on the other side and that’s what I think makes him so unique. And he went to a team that is a very good team already.”

Duke fans, you already know this. Head to the right side. The rest of you?

Those who are going to go “Flagg’s only scoring 17 ppg,” or whatever...you’ll figure it out.

Flagg is plenty talented physically. Like other greats - Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli - his biggest talent is between his ears.

Does he make mistakes? Of course he does. Everyone makes mistakes, because you have nine other large, fast men moving around in unpredictable ways. You can see a path and then, out of nowhere, someone does something you don’t expect. What can you do about it?

However.

Flagg consistently makes the right play. Sometimes it’s a shift of his feet that cuts someone off. Sometimes it’s a pass. Sometimes it’s a block and sometimes it’s a basket. A lot of it are things that coaches and teammates know, but the rest of us miss. He’s not a glue guy - he’s a water guy. He flows to whatever his team needs to win.

As Jay Bilas points out, those things add up to victories. And what he didn’t say, but what we saw with Bird and Johnson is that when you have a guy who does all the right things, particularly passing, it’s contagious. We see this now with Caitlin Clark - she elevates everyone on her team. Everyone wants to make smart passes. Everyone is playing smarter basketball.

With a player like that, you just get on the bus, because magic is going to happen on that ride. Look at Clark’s teammates - they know something amazing could happen at any moment. They’re alert. They’re ready for it.

They really, really don’t want to miss or disrupt it. They want to make it last.

That’s what Flagg will bring to Dallas. His team will be really good. People who try to measure that kind of player by mere stats are missing the whole point.