Cooper Flagg is the future of the Dallas Mavericks. He might as well be the present too.
With a 35-point performance against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday, the phenom joined LeBron James as the only 18-year-olds to ever post a 30-point game in the NBA. Flagg did it at 18 years and 343 days old, James did it the first of three times at 18 years and 334 days old.
However, Flagg is the only player to ever hit 35 points at that age. He finished Saturday’s 114-110 win with 13-of-22 shooting plus eight rebounds and two assists.
This comes only one day after Flagg became the youngest player in NBA history to post 10 assists in a game, reaching the milestone against James and the Lakers. So he set an NBA milestone for most points and most assists at his age in each leg of a back-to-back.
Following the firing of general manager Nico Harrison — a tacit admission the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade was indeed a franchise-handicapping disaster — there is little doubt that developing Flagg into a superstar is now the first and second priority for the Mavericks, whose record still sits at 6-15.
The Mavericks lucked into Flagg, one of the most hyped NBA Draft prospects since James, by winning the lottery last spring. The team drafted him rather than trade the pick, as some thought they might consider since they wanted to contend this season, and handed him starting point guard duties out of the gate due to a lack of guard depth.
Cooper Flagg is starting to look as advertised. (Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
Being an 18-year-old in the NBA is difficult. Being an 18-year-old primary ballhandler is even worse, especially when your team styles itself as a contender. It was a somewhat rough start for Flagg, who averaged 13.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.3 turnovers while shooting 40.3% from the field and 27.3% from 3-point range.
In the 10 games since then, however, Flagg is averaging 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.0 turnovers while shooting 51.3% from the field and 23.7% from deep. Those are still pretty small samples, but a teenager trending up like that after his first taste of NBA action ain’t nothing.
The fact that Flagg is even in the NBA at this age is an accomplishment, made possible by reclassifying in high school and entering Duke as a 17-year-old. Developing into an effective starter at this age isn’t something we’ve ever seen outside of James, which is very good company to have when you’re a do-everything player like Flagg.
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