Cooper Flagg draws comparison to another Duke and NBA superstar

We’re living in the era of unicorns, at least with what pertains to basketball. It’s all about positionless basketball and big players who can put the ball on the floor and knock down threes.

That’s why Cooper Flagg is such a unique and promising prospect. He’s a forward trapped in the body of a big man, much like elite scorers with a long wingspan like Kevin Durant.

Over the past year, he’s drawn comparisons to Andrei Kirilenko and Kevin Garnett. Nevertheless, an unnamed Western Conference executive believes he’s more similar to Jayson Tatum.

Executive compares Cooper Flagg to Jayson Tatum

“Both of them at Duke presented really positively as guys that were going to have a couple of off-ramps to be super successful,” the exec told ESPN. “We’re seeing that with Flagg recently, he’s had poor shooting nights like against [Alabama in the Elite Eight], and still was super impactful [toward] winning. … People questioned both of their shots, which turned out to be a silly concern, probably. They both have really good feel offensively in a way that’s just uncommon for their size and usage.”

Of course, they’re both from the same program, so they should be very proud of this comp. Then again, as great a player as Tatum is, he’s not the same type of player Flagg is.

Flagg actually has a higher upside as a defender, and while Tatum is a superstar, the Maine native has the potential to be one of the greatest players to ever lace them up.