Cooper Flagg might be the best American-born basketball prospect since LeBron James entered the 2003 NBA Draft. That’s a bold claim to make against the likes of Anthony Davis at Kentucky, Zion Williamson at Duke, Greg Oden at Ohio State, and Derrick Rose at Memphis, but Flagg has put himself in that conversation during an electric freshman year.
Flagg has been the best player in college basketball this season despite being one of the youngest players in the sport. He spent three years in high school before reclassifying to enter college early, enrolling at Duke at 17 years old. His play has jumped to next stratosphere after turning 18 on Dec. 21. Since his birthday, Flagg is averaging 20 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game with a 57.4 effective field goal percentage and 43.3 percent three-point shooting. He has Duke into the Final Four, and in a few months he’ll be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
There is so much to like about Flagg’s game. He has ideal positional size for an NBA four at 6’9 with a 7-foot wingspan. He’s an explosive athlete who can easily finish plays above the rim on both ends. Defensively, he’s a capable wing stopper on the ball, and a great off-ball roamer with shot-blocking skills and the ability to grab a steal and push the ball down the floor for a bucket. Offensively, he’s an excellent passer, a fearsome cutter, and a red shot spot-up shooter. He’s spent his freshman year proving he can be a star with the ball in his hands, running isolations and pick-and-rolls with impressive efficiency at star-level 30 percent usage.
What has always made Flagg special is his two-way versatility and undeniable impact on winning. With that in mind, here are five NBA comps for Cooper Flagg that help contextualize how his game can translate to the next level.
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Jayson Tatum
Tatum is obviously one of the best players in the NBA on the brink of his fourth-straight First-Team All-NBA nod this season. He’s proven he can be the best player on a championship team, and he’s still only 27 years old. Two things stand out about his game as it relates to Flagg: versatility and consistency.
Tatum may not have won 2024 NBA Finals MVP, but his performance in those Finals proved how valuable he is. Tatum did the dirty work all series long, defending Dallas’ centers, relentlessly driving the ball to the rim for kickouts to teammates, and helping clean the glass. Tatum is almost the exact same size as Flagg (he’s listed at 6’8 with a 6’11 wingspan), and he’s used that big frame to a bully in the paint. Flagg could have similar physicality as he ages.
Tatum playing bully ball pic.twitter.com/VKJL19CCJ6 — Pull up shoot (@NElGHT_) March 25, 2024
Tatum’s scoring gets all the attention, but he also impacts the game in so many other ways, as a rebounder, as a versatile defender, as an offensive weapon on-and-off the ball. Tatum has a case as Duke’s best NBA product ever, and Flagg will be coming for that title.
Andrei Kirilenko
Kirilenko was one of the most underrated players of his era. A 6’9 forward with a monstrous 7’4 wingspan, AK47 was a dominant defender who could capably space the floor on offense and had advanced playmaking chops. That sounds a lot like Flagg.
Kirilenko was a generational defender in every way. He used his combination of length and leaping to become an amazing shot-blocker, averaging between 2.7 and 3.6 blocks per-36 minutes for his first five NBA seasons. He was just as effective in the passing lanes, averaging a shade under two steals per game for his first four seasons. Kirilenko’s physical gifts were obvious, but he also had incredible defensive awareness for knowing when to rotation and how to get a piece of the ball.
Tool #5: Shot-blocking
“Super timing. Super, super timing,