Cooper Flagg hasn’t played a single minute of NBA basketball, yet fans have been urging their teams to tank to get him for months now. He’s the projected first-overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Flagg went viral online multiple times while in college, and the fans raved about him when they saw him hold his own vs. NBA superstars in a scrimmage against Team USA last offseason.
Still, the Duke star is a young player, and as such, there are some things to polish in his game. With that in mind, ESPN reached out to some executives to discuss them.
NBA executives debate Cooper Flagg’s limitations
“It looks like [Duke head coach Jon] Scheyer has been intentionally putting him in situations where it’s, ‘OK, go, get a basket,’” one Western Conference executive said. “It doesn’t look like the primary creation is there for him quite yet. There’s a hope that he can be a go-to guy on offense. It seems like he’s got the vision and passing, but the individual scoring stuff has to get better.”
Cooper Flagg #2 of the Duke Blue Devils prepares to take the floor during Countdown to Craziness at Cameron Indoor Stadium
However, even if that’s not what some fans of tanking teams wanted to hear, other decision-makers are more optimistic, seeing him as a dominant scorer right out of the gate:
“Maybe you hope that, but it’s more realistic that he’s a 20-point-per-game scorer minimum,” another scout chimed in. “He’s going to really impact the game and fill the stat sheet regardless.”
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At the end of the day, there will most likely be ups and downs. As talented as he is, it’s never easy to make the transition to the pros, and there will most definitely be some growing pains along the way.
