Cooper Flagg is DESTINED to Outperform His Top 100 Placement | Dallas Mavericks Podcast

Cooper Flagg is DESTINED to Outperform His Top 100 Placement | Dallas Mavericks Podcast

On today’s show, Cooper Flag is 20 spots too low in the locked on top 100. What does he need to do to get out of the 80s and up into be a top 60, top 50 player, plus a shocking top five from slightly biased on today’s lockdown map. Stop it. Stop. The number one pick will go to the Dallas Mavericks. Cooper flag will fly in Dallas. All of you are locked on. Your daily Dallas Mavericks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Still can’t leave. Your team everyday. I’m going to get a city like back. And welcome viewer locked on to the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Dick Angstead covering the maps for 10 years. Thanks for being an everydayer, making lockdown maps your first listen. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com. 50% off your first year. Joining me as always, the postgame prodigy from the great slightly biased YouTube channel. What you got for me, slightly biased? Feeling good. Ready to chop it up. Talk some top 100. We got our lists. Lists. Checked it twice. Top hate lists, but they are they are just fun content in my opinion. I mean, BuzzFeed made a whole company off of list. That’s true. There’s just something about a list. It’s great. something something good about a list. We’ll go through that. I want to talk about where our biggest differences and our biggest surprises on the list because there’s some there’s some in here that we’re like wait what like how did this player end up there were very different like 20 spots different on some on certain players and so we’ll get to that like Aman Thompson and some others but let’s start here slightly. Cooper flag we had him in the 60s. You had Cooper Flag at 66. I am at I had him at 60 and the locked on top 100 had him at 80. All the lockdown hosts voted on this and had him at 80. And I think that I I do know that a bunch of lockdown hosts decided not to vote for any rookies. Did you have Dylan Harper? I actually had Dylan Harper 99. No, I didn’t. And the only reason I I didn’t and I didn’t have Stfan Castle either, even though I really thought about it was because I just thought that back court could be a little bit too crowded. It’s true with Fox and them two. Like that is there’s a lot of mouths to feed. But I think Harper is going to be really good. So I went predictive route and was like, “All right, let’s just Yeah. Yeah. I really like Harper. I think there I think there’ll be probably two at least rookies from this class that’ll probably end up being around top 100 players. I was trying to figure out who I wanted the second guy to be. Uh the guy I was closest flirting the most with honestly was uh Trey Johnson. He is second for rookie of the year odds on FanDuel. Really? Like because he Yeah, because he’s going to have opportunity for sure. Okay, interesting. Yeah. Uh yeah, Trey Johnson is an interesting one. I think Jeremiah Fears got a vote for our top 100 and I want to find that host and definitely a Pelicans host. I find I find that host. I want to find that host and tell Jake Madison what I think about him. Um but Cooper Flag is in the 80s. How do you react to to that ranking? Because to me it looks it looks too low because you start looking at some of the players especially like all right so Cooper Flag is is 80 right? He’s right behind Michael Porter Jr. Drew Holidayiday Cam Johnson Lou Dort Kobe White. But then you go to to 80, it’s Nas Reed, Brandon Miller, who’s still trying to figure out what he is in the NBA. Josh Giddy, who just got moved by his team because he couldn’t play on a playoff team. Herb Jones, one one-sided player, Sar Thompson, kind of a one-sided player. Emanuel Quickley, not I’m not really sure what to think about him yet. DeAndre Hunter, like I look at some of these players and I’m like, Cooper Flags may be better than those guys. And how what does he have to do to prove to these lockdown hosts or to whoever else that he deserves to be like a top 60, top 50 player? Well, I think part of the interesting thing is what is his role even going to be really, you know, uh there’s already he’s already on such a talented roster for a number one overall pick. Like I don’t know, you got to go back to the Tim Duncan on the Spurs before you find a number one overall pick entering the league in a Well, that sounds crazy because I’m I’m implying that the Mavs are going to win a championship, but really just go back and look at the history of number one overall picks. They usually go to terrible teams. Like that’s the lone benefit of being a terrible team uh is that you get a chance to get a guy like that. But I mean, if he just comes out and is who we think he’s going to be, he’ll be a top 100 player. I mean, I went back and I looked and, you know, there’s no there’s no perfect catch-all stat for the NBA, right? Especially for rookies. Like, rookies advanced metrics usually hate them and you really got to dig a little bit deeper because efficiency is usually rough early on. But I went back and I looked at like the other really hyped prospects and where they finished their respective rookie seasons in terms of uh estimated plus minus. And you had Wimby who was 33rd in the league. You had Zion who was 59th. You had AD who was 53rd. So those are all the guys that are like, you know, get talked about a lot when you talk about flag. Like the the most high prospect since those guys. And if you’re interested, Luca is 58th. So typically for that’s usually around where they hover like if you come in immediately and are a high impact rookie, top 50, top 60 or so player. Um and then you had Wimy’s case where he just came in and was immediately second in defensive rookie defensive player of the year, wasn’t he? Yeah. I mean, just lagged, right? So, um that’s about what I expect. If if he comes in as who I think he could be as a you know, Flag is who he projects to be, he’ll be a high impact player. Like impact metrics will love him because he’ll he’ll be great defensively. He’ll block shots. He’ll get rebounds. You know, he he should rack up assists as well. So, uh, if he’s who we think he should be early on, I think top 60 is fair. I don’t even think that’s like necessarily super high expectations even. Yeah. Like this is the type of player you’re talking about when we talk about Cooper Fly because I think I think I I saw some comments and some people saying, “How are we ranking rookies? Like you guys don’t even know what he’s going to be.” Okay. What if I told you that there was a 6-9 player that can handle the ball, shot 38% from three in college, was one of the best defensive players in the country in in college and can defend multiple positions, can handle the ball, can pass really well, is, you know, student of the game and has is maniacal when it comes to competitiveness and like you’d be like, okay, yeah, that that player should be high up on the list, right? because he if he has all those traits all at once, then yeah, and he has the size and he’s going to be put on this team where he’s put in a situation where he’s going to be able to to showcase some of those things and he’s going to have the ball in his hands. I think if he showcases his scoring and shows that he can score on an NBA level, like he showed in that Team USA scrimmage, we talk about that. We talk about that a lot. I reference it a lot, but it was him proving against literal allstars that he belongs in the league that he could score against some of the best defenders in the NBA. There’s that clip of him hitting a jumper over Anthony Davis even, right? Like Yeah. and all the players talking about him afterwards and talk about how good he was and how he he fit in so well. He’s going to learn as it as it goes. He’s just like a he’s like Taskmaster in Marvel where he just like learns each each thing real quick and he goes he goes through learns a new move goes out does it and I just think that throughout the year his stock is going to rise so much that by the end of the season we’re be like how did we have him in the 80s? Like what what are we talking about? This guy is a fringe all-star by the end of the season. Yeah. I mean, French All-Star would be I just what I worry about slightly biased. That’s just a that’s a little too too biased. I just wonder what his usage will be. I mean, that’s really that’s kind of it. Uh cuz there’s you know if he’s really good right away and his usage is really high. Okay, that’s great. Like that’s a there’s also a con where it’s like if his usage is high, someone’s hurt, this guy’s hurt, like things aren’t going necessarily well. But um yeah, I mean it’s not crazy to think a rookie can be a top 60 player. It’s pretty historically I mean I’m looking through again EPM whatever, right? Just dismiss it if you want, but just looking at this, there’s always usually a couple of rookies that are around the top 100 or so or inside the top 100. So it’s not crazy. If you want to do the how can you rank rookies, then why even do anything? I don’t understand. These are all predictive lists. I mean, why even do them? Why get up in the morning? Why make your bed? You’re just going to get back into it, right? Like why even talk about it? Well, we don’t know. Like we’ll we’ll just not talk about Flag anymore. Just like we don’t know. Oh man. I’m going to go on podcast like what do you think about flagship? Don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. I think if the Mavericks are like a top five defense or even like Yeah, even a top five defense and he’s a big part of it. I think that’ll do a lot for his case, too. Yeah, for sure. And and I just think he’s again he’s in such a great role for him defensively. Like you if you want to talk about offensively, is this the best spot for him right now? I think it’s fine. But defensively where it’s like what’s what’s Flag’s best traits as a defender that we’ve seen? Well, when he you can just park him in the the weak side corner and he can just kind of roam off and block shots. Well, that’s exactly what he’ll be doing on this team. So, uh I think it’ll be pretty good. I think offensively he’s in the best situation for him developmentally. I think so, too. But, you know, there’s people who don’t think that. But developmentally, I think because he’s gonna have the ball in his hands, and that’s what he needs to develop early in his in his career because he can play off the ball. I’m not worried about that. It’s great because the ball will be in his hands, but it doesn’t have to be every time. But it will be though, which is good for him, but it doesn’t have to be. But it will be. But it doesn’t. It’s not like he’ll be playing point guard because there’s some teams that would draft like, “Dude, you can play point guard for us right now. Like, we don’t care.” Like Keonte George, see you. Cooper Flag is running our point now. Yeah. Yeah. Coming up, let’s talk about our biggest surprises on the top 100 and our biggest differences. I got a couple that I just don’t really get. Talk about that coming up. [Music] Today’s episode of Lock Maps brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel Sports has all kinds of props and odds, things that you can use to get in on the action. Check out FanDuel and see what is available for you. I just talked about rookie of the year and talked about how the uh how Trey Johnson is second in rookie of the year, but Cooper Flag is number one right now. He’s still the favorite and he is almost like they almost expect it to happen at this point. Minus 190 for Cooper Flag to win rookie of the year. Trey Johnson plus 850 he’s number two. Then Dylan Harper plus a,000. VJ Edgecom of the Sixers plus 1300. Ace Bailey of the Jazz plus 1500. Then there’s another gap and it’s Conan Nipple plus 2500. So if you are feeling confident about one of those, go check it out. And uh if you put down $5 and your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And that’s on anything, not just an NBA thing, but you can do it on on a college football game or an NFL game or whatever. If you’re ready to play, download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. FanDuel, please gamble responsibly. Today’s episode is also brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth. You need that in front of you because you got to know what’s going in, what’s coming out, all that kind of stuff with your finances. There’s so many different things that you have to keep track of. Monarch Money helps you with that. I love it. I use it because it I can connect everything in minutes. That’s where Monic Money comes into play. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or phone. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Don’t let money slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NBA. Shut it down. Let’s go. Explain yourself. Sorry. Thanks for hanging out with us on Unliming Being part of the show. Part of the raccoon squad. That’s what we call our listeners. Listening every single day. We appreciate you for checking out the show and listening. We’ll be back next week and uh slightly. We’re getting close. We are. We’re getting close to the season. Let’s see. We have this week we’re doing the top 100. Next week we’ll probably do some preview stuff. Week after that, we’ll probably do our like positional rankings we do every year. And then uh we’re at media day. Once the NFL season starts, I always say this, time literally changes. I don’t know what it is. It’s like a boom. It just it just goes, man. It just goes. And we’ll be back with Mavs basketball. And I cannot wait to watch Mavs basketball this year. Me either. We need the opening kickoff the NFL season like opens some weird time dilation portal. Are you Are you doing fantasy this year? Are you like Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m in Fortnite. But when when I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago, I I think there’s like in and I’m partially joking. I think there’s like an orb that covers Vegas and time goes slower there. I’m being dead serious. The sphere. You ever seen the eyes on the sphere where it looks around and it’s like there must be something radiating out of it cuz the last night I was so ready to go to bed and it I kept looking at my phone if like every 3 hours only 5 minutes would pass. Well, I like there’s no way it’s only cuz it went slow. Like no way. Well, you know that the Mavs actually utilize the same technology they have in casinos and like pump oxygen into the Mavs locker room. Really? They pump oxygen into the locker room because it it keeps you more alert and awake. And that’s what they do with casinos to keep you there longer so you like don’t realize how late you’re staying out. Okay. And they get rid of all clocks. There’s no clocks any I did know that. Yeah, that I I brought it back to the Mavs. There you go. Our biggest surprises on the top 100. We already talked about Steph Curry yesterday. That was a big surprise with him him coming in at five. The other one to me was was uh Aman Thompson. I had him at 31. Lockdown ended up having him at 49. That’s what an 18 spot difference. That was that was a really interesting one to me that he was that far down for Yeah, I had him at 40 37. So I had him higher, too. I mean I It’s weird. I’ I’d have to listen to the ranking, you know, like the people who ranked them and just kind of what their criteria is. But if it’s a predictive thing, you’ve got a third-year guy who is a highly touted draft prospect, top four pick, who is one of the best athletes the league has ever seen. I really cannot overemphasize that. This guy is an absolute freak of nature athletically. Was one of the most impactful and best defenders in the entire NBA last year and dramatically improved offensively. And going into year three, I I think, you know, I think there’s a lot of things on the table for him that I don’t I wouldn’t even put a ceiling on on him. I I don’t know what a ceiling could possibly be. Uh the shooting obviously is shaky enough, but even then, he went from being a complete and total nothing shooter to bad. So, I mean, could we is there do you think there’s some residual like this is a bad comparison, but it is one like some residual Ben Simmons like leftovers for this? Like, all right, we’ve got this archetype of this athletic player, defends really well, can pass really well, kind of is a point guard, can’t shoot, and he’s just been burned by this before. Yeah, maybe for and there’s probably people who are like I don’t if you can’t shoot threes I just automatically especially for someone who needs the ball in your hands like you are you’re automatically getting docked for me I I get that but again he’s so good defensively and I just he’s I mean Ben Simmons was a great athlete for sure this guy is just different he’s he’s completely different him and his brother are just insane athleticism is unbelievable when you watch it is it could it also be like we we last watched him in the playoffs and guys were just like off of him like like 10 feet like I still thought he was good. I thought he was good in that series. I thought he did a lot of great things. I mean uh I I could get the worries but uh yeah I mean I’ll buy that guy. If you’re going to sell any of Men Thompson stock for whatever reason I will buy all of it. Especially since it’s predictive. You start looking at it and you’re like LaMelo Ball’s ahead of Aman Thompson. Desmond Bane is ahead of of Aman Thompson. Aaron Gordon, Julius Randle. God, there’s so many good players in the NBA. Gotti Barnes, there there is a lot, but man, like I I’d have over a lot of these guys. Yeah, I mean, I’m looking at it, there’s none that like jump out to me as egregious on that list to be honest with you. But I’m I’m just high on them. I mean, that’s just really it. Yeah, I think because it’s predictive, you go you go to the next one. What was your biggest surprise? Well, I think my biggest like change and difference was Embiid, but that’s not that much of a surprise to me. Yeah. Um I’m I’m way lower on Jimmy Butler. I have him at 44. I don’t 29 is where he’s at in the ringer rankings or not ringer rankings, locked on rankings. I just can’t I I didn’t think he was a top 30 player at all last year. And I even I even thought 44 was me giving him the benefit of the doubt a little tiny bit to be honest with you. Um if if he’s around where I think he is right now, I think that Warriors team’s in some serious trouble. Like it’s the same thing I said about Paul George. It’s like, you know, he’s what 35 years old. I just don’t think Jimmy’s just gonna magically like turn back the clock. The thing about him is we’ve seen him just like magically leap out and be be good. And that it’s there is some sort of like Jimmy Butler I don’t know what to call it where like spell where you’re just like, “Oh, but he’s he’ll turn it on in the playoffs. Oh well like oh he’ll oh he he just dogs dogs it in the regular season you know like and then it didn’t happen in this playoffs and for some reason he’s still getting the benefit of the doubt because I I had him 27 which now looking at it I’m kind of with you like it’s probably too high. Yeah. Exact. That’s exactly it where you know if he was Steph went out last year got injured it’s like all right Jimmy time to be the playoff dog. and if he came out and then I’d be like, “Okay, yeah, Jimmy’s can dog it in the regular season, whatever.” But him just like still looking like that really passive Jimmy Butler that we see in the regular season from time to time with no Steph was alarming to me. I mean, in the game, I forgot what game it was. I’m looking at the game logs right now. I think it was game four, he took nine shots. Yeah. And you’re like, then they needed him like that. You needed him to take 20 shots in that game. And to be fair, the game before he did take 26 and scored 32. So, but still on average it averaged out. Yeah, it did it did average out. But, uh, yeah, man. I don’t know. I’m just He’s 35. That’s just it. He’s old. But we also But now we also have the LeBron insane. Steph Curry was top five on the Ringer list. Kevin Durant is top 10 in the or not in the Ringer list. I did it too. The the locked on list. Those guys are all better than Jimmy though, for sure. But but I’m just saying that the age number is becoming less and less of a factor because we’re watching these anomalies in front of us just just baffle father time. Well, the thing is is like the moment if you’re if you’re that age and the moment you show me some some type of weakness, I’m out. I don’t I don’t think you’ll come back to it. It just I think that’s usually what it is. And LeBron has just been so steady that even his like decline because he has obviously declined as a player hasn’t been uber noticeable, you know. Where did you have LeBron? I had LeBron 13th, but I have him in a tier from like seven to 13 where wherever you want to put LeBron, I won’t argue with you. I had him at 11. Yeah. But I’m I’m with you. It’s like that. It is like that Steph Curry, Durant, AD, LeBron, Brunson, Donovan Mitchell and probably Kate Cunningham. Like that that that group of eight to 14 to me is just like wherever. Wow. Okay. I didn’t realize I had Paulo this high. I have him 14th. I have him 17. So, not far off of you. I’m a big paddle guy. And I think Tyres Halbert probably be in that list if he wasn’t hurt. Absolutely. Probably. I had him 16. Maybe I have I should have a little higher. We’re not really considering injuries in this this one, but yeah. So, I I didn’t put him in mine just cuz he won’t be playing this year. Coming up, my biggest miss and slightly’s biggest miss. We’ll talk about that more coming up. [Music] I’m not playing. I’m watching. Just like you guys. We’re watching. We’re watching this top 100 list go up. We’re back here with Slightly. We’re talking about the top 100 list. My biggest miss I think was probably Trey Murphy. I don’t know what to do with Trey Murphy. I don’t either. I had him at 71 going through it and the lockdown list had him at 56. So I have him at 65. So 66. I’m closer to you than the list. They had him ahead of Jared Allen, Muel Bridges, Norm Powell, uh Dyson Daniels, Denny Obia, Brandon Ingram, Zack Lavine. Going through these names, it doesn’t doesn’t sound as egregious. You want you know, but for Trey Murphy, like I don’t know. He hasn’t even really stepped up as like a guaranteed like you got to start him on the on the Pelicans. You know what I mean? Like, so I think part of the Trey Murphy dilemma is he was this guy for a tiny bit. Played on the Pelicans. Like, who’s really watching the Pelicans that if you really wanted to flex some ball knowledge, you could be like, “Hey, that Trey Murphy guy’s good. Wasn’t he a allstar? This is a Ryan Rascilo all-star is Trey Murphy.” Yep. Hey, he shoots from 33 feet. He’s 610 or whatever he is. I came more impressed with some of the defensive stuff, honestly. Exactly. I was more impressed with the shots he didn’t make, but no. Uh, I agree with you where it’s like I do think Trey Murphy’s getting a little overrated, but I still think he’s really good cuz I mean that size and that shooting ability is is very impactful for teams, but I don’t think he’s like a tremendous defensive player. I don’t think he’s a great one-on-one creator. So then I’m just looking around and I’m like, what? Like, shouldn’t he be around where I have Cam Johnson or MPJ? Well, yeah. What am I ranking? He’s he played 53 games last year, 57 the year before that on a Pelicans team that was not good. So, okay, here’s 21 and 61. Yeah. I mean, that wasn’t that was just a cursed team, but but if you’re putting up numbers on a team that’s bad, I’m less impressed by the numbers you’re putting up. That’s fair. Here was the exact one that I thought about Brandon Miller. I have Brandon Miller 59. So, I have him hire Whoa. Well, I I love Brandon. I thought rookie year Brandon Miller was really special and I thought we were watching someone who looked like they could blossom into one of the league’s premier scores and then last year I don’t know how many games he played off top of like 30. He barely played. Um but in the tiny flashes and and admittedly he didn’t watch too many Hornets games but the tiny glimpses I did see of him his playmaking I thought was noticeably better as well. And so if he continues that trend I mean he’s 22 years old. he continues that trend, I think he’s somebody that we look back on like, oh yeah, like duh, Brandon Miller, of course. Like he had a great rookie year, was hurt year two. Like, yeah, of course he was going to have a massive year three. Oh, you had him 56. I had Brandon Miller 59. 59. Yeah, I’m high on him. He came in 82. I didn’t rank him. Yeah. And I think considering how much time he missed last year, you know, I added him late because I didn’t even have him on the list because then I I forgot about him. Yeah, we played 20ome games last year. Yeah. So then I I literally thought would rather have Trey Murphy or Brandon Miller and I was like well Brandon Miller I think. Interesting. What was your biggest miss? So like what when you say biggest miss, what do you mean? Like you you look at it and you’re like, “Oh, I have that guy way too low.” Well, I just finished my list like two hours ago, so I don’t have any I don’t have any guy where I’m like, “Oh, I probably missed that. Messed up that one.” I guess one of mine is it’s not like super low. It’s not like that much lower, but I do have Dyson Daniels at 70 instead of 60. Maybe I’m just not like super I mean that’s really not that big of a difference. I was going to say the 10 the 10 spots in the top 100 really is not especially when you get to that range as egregious as you think. The one for me I talked about this with Danny Cunningham locked on Cavs on locked on NBA the other day. I had Darius Garland at 38. Like I had this group of Fox, Garland, Murray, Maxi, uh even Damen Lillard. Like I literally had those five in a row. I just like threw them at 37 to 41. That’s funny. You I outside of Dame I didn’t rank. I have all of those guys and Kyrie in the same clump. I think Kyrie’s the best out of all those guys, but Danry obviously factored in. I had Derrick Scarland the best out of all of them though. Yeah, I had Fox one spot ahead of him. I I had John Morant like 25 and I had Trey Young 30 and Devin Booker 23, Kyrie 24. Like I just felt like those guys were are just a step above all those other guys. And the Darius Garland defense in the playoffs thing like I know he had a foot injury and that’s what Danny said. He’s like he just he had a foot injury and like we just can’t really you can’t take that. That can’t be the your only evaluation point. And I was just thinking I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a top 25 player or like top 30 player to me. I’ve always had a very weird thing with Daryus Garland. I’ve always loved him. I love the way he plays. I think he’s so fun to watch. Um, you can say this about a couple guys on the Cavs. It gets to a point in the playoffs where it’s hard to ignore some of the stuff we’ve seen, you know? Uh, the same thing about Jared Allen, I guess. Okay, my big ones that I’m looking at, I’m like, w like I I feel like I could be an idiot here. I I am lower on Jaylen Brown. I have him 31 and I actually thought about going lower. I think we’re in for a disaster. for Jaylen Brown season. I have to be honest with you because he got stripped by that principal. Did you see that clip? Did you see that clip where he was playing at the school? I did not see that. I did see the clip today where he was like, “Don’t rule out.” They were asking like, “Would you play for the Bulls?” He was like, “Never rule anything out.” And I saw Celtics fans like why would you even say that? Come on. But uh interesting. I put him high because I think he’s going to put up a bunch of numbers because I think it’s just inevitable. I mean, we we were talking about this yesterday. I don’t even know if Simons is going to be on the team. Who’s going to score for this team? Him and Derek White and Payton Pritchard. Jaylen Brown is the number one guy every night for defenses every night. I’m not talking like a stretch of a week. I’m talking every game of the season. I think it could be. What’s a shot chart going to look like? Is this just going to be all to the right? Like I mean, how many turnovers are we going to average a night? Like that’s what I’m actually thinking. Are we going to be at seven? Are we going to set records? I have Zion 18. I think I’m looking at that one. Wow. I my Zion to me is the hardest person to ever rank in these. Agreed. because when he’s healthy and playing, he is without a question in my in my mind a top 10 player or top 20 player, sorry. Yeah, no doubt about it a top 20 player. Um, but it’s like I don’t know how to rank him because I tried to avoid the injury thing. He’s healthy right now. So I I don’t him, Kawawaii, Embiid are all in the same little clump where it’s like I don’t know where you can rate these guys. I put Zion 50. He ended up being 47 on the locked on list. And I think that’s totally fair. But then I’m like, well, if I’m ranking guys based off of, well, if he’s playing, he has to be in the top 20 for me. Should we talk our top five? Cuz that’s top five is what people want to hear. People want to hear where you have the Don. Oh yeah, we haven’t even done that. We haven’t even done that yet. Okay. I did So I did this on I did this on on Monday. I talked about this, but I have Jokic, SGA, Luca at three, Giannis at four. I honestly think SGA, Luca, Giannis can go in any order, but well that that top four is there’s not even another. You can’t you can’t argue that there should be any four. Yeah, there’s not even an argument for anyone else. I have WY at five. He would be the other one where if like I he just takes off and is an MVP this year. Yeah, but I I don’t know if that’s even possible, but that he would be the next one for me. But where’d you where’d your top five end up? Yush number one for me still. He was unanimous on on the lock time. Yeah, I mean I did flirt with I have Giannis too and I flirted with the idea of Giannis one. I think we have a I think we have a special Giannis season brewing. I really do. Uh I don’t like want to take away too much from Euro Basket. He’s looked incredible and he’s just quietly over the years built up this mid-range jumper. Then it’s been automatic in this tournament to the point where it’s like is this like a real thing now where is just going to have this at his disposal? Uh and then I have Luca three and Shay four. Wow. dropping Shay. Well, all four of these guys are incredible. All four of these guys could win MVP. All four of these guys could win a ring and finals MVP. Like I it’s it sucks ranking them because it’s like I had Shay like if we were just going based off last year, I’d say Shay was the second best player in the league behind Yokic pretty comfortably. And I don’t I don’t even know if Luka was top five. I’m just being honest with you. I don’t know if he was top five. Um yeah, but post men’s health. Yeah, true. We are post men’s health. I’ve seen this narrative. It’s like Luca has been the best player in the league for the last two years. is like Luca was no there’s not even an argument for him being the best player in the league two years ago the finals run year when we were two years ago absolutely I’d agree with you he was the best player in the league that year last year there’s not even an argument to be made but if he’s healthy yeah he’ll be right back in this mix and then I put Ant at five you love Ant I had at seven I love him I just do I love him at Tatum would be my five let me be make myself very clear I tat him at six but Wimby I have at six so and I people people say that’s high with And look, listen, the Wimby thing, I get it. He hasn’t proven himself. One, he has proven that he is the league’s most impactful defensive player. He would have won defensive player of the year last year. Let me Let’s be clear. He has proven that he is the best defensive player in the league. And then on top of that, he’s 7 foot4. Improved dramatically offensively last year before he got before DVT. My my DVT brother. And then uh he’s at year three. I don’t think he’s going to continue to improve. He’s training with Monks. I’m in on that. He is the best defensive player in the the league. Averaged 24 points a game, 11 boards, four assists, and shot 35% on eight nine threes a game. I don’t I don’t prove anything. What do you Well, guess what? He’s proven to my eyeballs that guy’s the top six player on this league. How do you explain that? Like, cuz Okay, I’m looking at it. I’m like, I have Brunson seventh. Let me be honest. Who do I think has a higher ceiling going into the season? It’s easily Wimi. Yeah. Like it’s not even close. Way taller. I mean true. Literally a high almost twice his height. And I love Brunson. Like I I feel like seven’s high for Brunson, but then you guys have eight. So yeah, I had him 12. But it is also just Can we just pour one out real quick for the Mavs having two top eight players in lockdown top 100 a couple years ago and then I will forever zero of them now die on the hill that Brunson would be nowhere near this player if he stayed. I think I agree. So, I don’t I don’t lose sleep over the Brunson one. I mean, I’m happy for him. I really am. And they got Kyrie, which it ended up working out, but and long down the hill that Kyrie’s a better running mate or was a better running mate for Luca than Brunson was. We covered a finals. You remember you remember that last that last episode where we started it. It was the end of game five and I was the confetti was falling on me and I was like, “What are we about to talk about?” Because what’s the point of this episode because the Mavs just lost the finals. Yeah, it was inevitable. Well, yeah. I mean, w who who were some guys? Do you have guys that are on the list that you didn’t rank? So, I didn’t rank Anthony Simons. I can’t believe I Simons is not a top 100 player in the NBA. That’s insane to me. Uh I had I don’t have I had Cam Thomas at 85. Really? Yeah. Like I think he’s a good player. All right. Wow. Okay. I Jordan I think Jordan Pool had a really underrated season for the Wizards last year. Jordan Pool I thought about I thought about Jordan and the last the last like 15 is just like I don’t like who know it could it could be any number of like 30 40 players. Uh I had Tar Een I had Jaylen Duran I had Dylan Harper and I had Derrick Lively the ones that locked on didn’t rank. I literally took Tar E out as my last one out. I I went the guys I don’t have ranked the guys I have that aren’t on the list. Case Wallace, Gaffford, Alex Sar Wiggins, I still think is Andrew Wiggins. I still think Yes, Andrew Wiggins. I I think that actually is an important distinction. I put Jabari Smith on here because I’m still deep down I still believe he got some PJ. How about this one? Jay Nivey. Yeah, I think out of side, out of mind for him. I think he I’m locked in on him having a good year. Reys. Fair. Yeah. Impact. Walker Kesler. Walker Caster got some votes and guess who was the most surprised about that? Who? David Lock. The locked on jazz hose. He’s like, it’s like not good. It’s like not good when the host of the me want to take him off. That makes me want to take him off my list. When the hose is like, “Oh my gosh, we got some votes.” Um, yeah. Maybe my biggest miss was Brandon Miller cuz I didn’t I didn’t rank him. I’m high on him. I’m high on him. I didn’t have DeAndre Hunter on. I had him at at 80 or 90. I didn’t have Jakob Purle on and locked on dead. I didn’t have Payton Pritchard and I didn’t have CJ McCollum. I don’t have CJ McCullum. So, I didn’t have a Wizard or Nikquil Alexander Walker. Nikquil Alexander Walker at 97 at lockdowns list gave the the Hawks five players on the I’m sorry. I No, I’m sorry. Nil Alexander Walker is not a top 100 player. So, I didn’t have Anthony Simons, CJ, Nikil Alexander Walker, Vuvich, I’m just done with him. Beal, like really? Hey, we’re doing Beal. I still have Beal. Oh, no, no, no. And then Emanuel Quickley, which I thought about and then I was just like, I didn’t like love him ever and then he was hurt all last year. Maybe my biggest surprise in the whole locked on thing. Um Oh, where is it? Um there’s a team that got five. No. Yeah, there’s a Yeah, a team that got five. I was shocked. Shocked. Like I could not believe that they got five players cuz the only the only teams that got five players, it’s the Raptors. Yeah. The only teams that got five players were uh Celtics, Cavs, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Knicks, the Hawks got five because they kill Alexander Walker. The Raptors got five. I was shocked going through this. Uh yeah. So they got Scotty Scotty Barnes at 41, Brandon Ingram at at 63, Emanuel Quickley at 86, Jaka Purle at 93, RJ Barrett at 95. You know, it does it doesn’t sound that crazy when you they have five top 100 players. They can’t they can’t even make the play in in the East. You list out the players and it’s like, yeah, I guess Brandon Ingram didn’t even play last year. So true. And I I don’t have RJ or Mano Quickley in my top 100, but I’m not going to argue with you if you have him. Um I just I just Hurdle I think’s a top 100 player. Ingram’s a top 100 player and yeah Scotty’s a top 100 player easily. So they’re just weird because it’s like Brandon’s a top 100 player the same way like Demar Rosen is but it’s like if they’re on your team it’s like getting really excited about that. Like are you putting them on banners and stuff? I don’t know. But you can’t deny they’re top 100 players. Yeah. But it’s like Zack Lavine he’s a top 100 player. Do I want him on my team? Not really. Yeah, right. That’s our top 100. Go check out Sly B’s great YouTube channel and we’ll be back next week to talk more about uh we’re previewing the season. It’s coming up. Couple weeks. We’re getting there. Cannot believe it. Isaac sent me some adorable photos from Disney today. Him and his his children are just having the greatest time and I’m so happy for him. I just wanted to put that out on the air and uh yeah, we’ll be back next week. Thank check out our text line. Check out the locked on top 100 show and locked on sports today, guys. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out. Boom. You get on Space Mountain for me, Isaac.

The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg is ranked too low in the Locked On Top 100 NBA player rankings. What does Flagg need to do to climb into the top 60 or 50 players in the league alongside stars like Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving?

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased discuss Cooper Flagg’s potential impact on the Dallas Mavericks, debate player rankings, and analyze surprise inclusions in the Locked On Top 100 list. They examine where players like Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, and Brandon Miller should be ranked compared to established NBA stars.

Locked On Top 100 NBA Players of 2025

Locked On Mavs TEXT LINE: Support the show and get texts from Nick & Isaac on every Mavs Rumors, News Updates, Game Previews, Q&As, & More…
📲 https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonmavs
📲 TEXT: 214-643-8637

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-mavericks/

🎧 Apple https://buff.ly/2nE23zM
🎧 Spotify https://buff.ly/2D9kZgK
🎧 YouTube Music https://buff.ly/3LCb3gh
🎧 Pocket Casts https://pca.st/bPVO
🎧 Overcast https://buff.ly/34r6SOi
🎧 Castbox https://buff.ly/4bAM0EL
🎧 Audible https://buff.ly/3SjqZZm
🎧 Himalaya http://bit.ly/2pS463P
🎧 Audacy https://bit.ly/2SydQib

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

📲 Follow Locked On Mavs on Twitter – https://twitter.com/LockedOnMavs

📲 Follow Locked On Mavs on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lockedonmavs

📲 Follow Locked On Mavs on TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@lockedonmavericks

📲 Isaac Harris Twitter https://twitter.com/IsaacLHarris
📲 Nick Angstadt Twitter https://twitter.com/NickVanExit
📲 Nick Angstadt TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nickvanexit
📲 Nick Angstadt Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nickvanexit

📢 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! | Offers from our sponsors: lockedonpodcasts.com/offers

OLIPOPGet a free can of OLIPOP! Just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one. Head to drinkolipop.com/LOCKEDONNBA to claim your free can and find OLIPOP near you.

SKIMSShop SKIMS Mens at SKIMS.com/lockedonnba. Let them know we sent you! After you place your order, select “podcast” in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.  

OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonnba

WayFairGive your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.

Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

#CooperFlagg #AnthonyDavis #KyrieIrving #DallasMavericks #Dallas #NBA #Mavericks #Mavs #DallasMavs #MFFL