The NBA is getting ready to welcome Cooper Flagg. He’s been penciled in as the top pick in his class long before he played at Duke, dating back to his days at Montverde Academy.
The Maine native has been fairly impressive in his first — and most likely only — season at Durham. He’s currently leading the Blue Devils in all five major categories.
Nonetheless, even though he seems to be a lock to be the next American star in the Association, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver would rather pull the brakes on the hype.
Adam Silver doesn’t want to put pressure on Cooper Flagg
“The last person I want to put pressure on is Cooper Flagg, but he looks pretty spectacular so far,” the Commissioner said during the NBA’s recent event in Paris.
The Commissioner then talked about the importance of getting more American talents to the league and getting to work closely with national player development programs:
“I will just add that while it’s amazing to see the breadth and depth of international players coming into the NBA, 70% of our players in the NBA are still U.S. players,” Silver continued. “Could we do a better job working potentially with other youth programs in the U.S. developing U.S. players? Absolutely.”
At the end of the day, there’s never any kind of certainty when it comes to the NBA Draft. But, from a potential standpoint, Flagg does have everything one would look for in a franchise player.