Rookie Cooper Flagg Dominates Kevin Durant

After his 49 point outburst against Kon Knueppel and the Charlotte Hornets, Cooper Flagg followed up with another gem against the Houston Rockets, finishing with 34 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists. He’s really taken his game to another level and it’s hard at times to remember that he’s still a teenager.

Who does this? He’s in pretty elite company.

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What’s really interesting in these highlights is that he’s frequently going right at future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, and there’s not much Durant can do to stop him. You can see his frustration here as Flagg repeatedly abuses him. In fact, after one Flagg basket, Durant slaps the ball hard enough that it pops up and hits the backboard. We saw a similarly helpless reaction the other night from Joel Embiid as he threw his hands up, realizing there was simply nothing he could do to stop him.

What’s really interesting about Flagg’s development is this: remember at the beginning of the season when coach Jason Kidd said he wanted to stress Flagg by playing him at the point? At the time, Flagg struggled a bit and a lot of people thought he was overrated, but Kidd was playing a longer game.

Flagg learned and he now he’s playing the entire court. He has point guard skills and he can defend inside. He can shoot, drive, handle, and the last weak point in his game is his three point shooting, which he’ll improve dramatically by next season.

Book it.

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When Dallas gets Kyrie Irving back, they’ll effectively have a second point guard. And two shooting guards. And two small forwards, and two power forwards and a guy who can help out at center too.

And all those guys are named Cooper Flagg.

And he’s just 19, still a skinny teenager.

Imagine where he’ll be when he adds power to his game.

Actually, while it may seem to soon to ask this question, what the hey: who would you rather build around? Luka Donca or Flagg?

We’re big fans of Luka here but his conditioning has always been an issue and despite his surreal brilliance, Doncic is slow.

You can build around a slow player – Boston built perhaps the best team of all time, the 1986…

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Publish date : 2026-02-01 13:50:00

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