Is Cooper Flagg already a top-10 player?

Is Cooper Flagg already a top-10 player at just 19 years old?

This season we’ve watched Flagg lead Dallas to wins while outplaying Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and he handed Houston its first loss behind a 33-point, 9-rebound, 6-assist effort.

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In the final 100 seconds on Friday, he made two back-breaking shots that led the Mavericks to an NBA Cup victory:

First, Flagg drained an and-one floater that put Dallas up five points, and later he drove right and spun left into a heavily contested fallaway.

The floater is becoming a bit of a signature shot for Coop. Consider these three moments against Oklahoma City:

Here, the Mavericks run Flagg through a double screen on the left side of the floor, then he drives but is met at the rim by 7-foot-3 rookie center Aday Mara. So Flagg elevates and tosses up a soft floater.

Later on, Flagg brings the ball up himself and once again sees Mara inside so he tosses it up for another bucket.

The next play up the floor, Dallas runs a high pick-and-roll for Flagg with Daniel Gafford screening. Mara sees Flagg coming so he rotates over and contests hard. But that’s not a floater — that’s a lob to Gafford. The mere threat of a floater creates openings for his teammates, which puts the defensive big man in a dilemma: step up to stop the floater, and the same motion becomes a lob.

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Flagg always had the floater in his bag. This year he’s just making it more of a threat and he’s improved his midrange pull-up. At Duke, Flagg made only 34% of his dribble jumpers from midrange. As a rookie in Dallas, he made 38%. So far this season, he’s made 76%. That number is obviously unsustainable, but we’ll see where it lands; Flagg has always had excellent touch as an 83% career free-throw shooter. The ability to make late-clock jumpers off the dribble at an efficient clip is the weapon that often separates All-NBA players from All-Stars, and right now Flagg has it.

Flagg still needs to grow in the 3-point department. He made 28% of his catch-and-shoot 3s and 30% of his dribble-jumper 3s as a rookie. Those numbers are pretty comparable so far in his second…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/is-cooper-flagg-already-a-top-10-player-140807465.html

Author : Kevin O'Connor

Publish date : 2026-11-02 14:08:00

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