Cooper Flagg CHANGES EVERYTHING For The Dallas Mavericks…

I’ve been doing some thinking and I’m ready to declare it. Cooper Flag is officially a legit building block for an NBA franchise and I have just been so pleased with how he’s come along through these first 20 games of his NBA career and I certainly think that the Mavericks have found their next franchise cornerstone as we move to the new era of Mavericks basketball with Cooper Flag. Welcome into Mavericks today by chat sports. Jeffrey Cooperstein here. And my favorite thing about Flag right now is he’s only 18 years old. He doesn’t turn 19 for another three weeks. He is the youngest player in the league and he became the youngest player ever to score 35 points in an NBA game, surpassing LeBron James. Look, this guy is absolutely special and I think the Mavericks are going to build around him for years and years to come. The question is how they do that. We’ll talk about it next here on the show. Cooper Flag is just really coming into his own as time goes on here in the NBA. And he feels like he’s getting better and better every single game. He has been someone who I think has improved from game one to game 20. And you can absolutely see those improvements in his game. He just looks so much more comfortable on the ball. He looks so much more comfortable on the defensive end as well. And it’s paying dividends for the Mavericks. Now, the Mavs aren’t winning tons of games, which we obviously know, but it’s going to absolutely pay off in the long run because this guy, he can do it all on the basketball court. All of it. And against the Clippers, you saw it. I mean, the Mavericks were without Derrick Lively, without Daniel Gaford. PJ Washington gets injured in warm-ups, stepping on a basketball, and spraining his ankle. Like, the Mavericks had nobody available. And what happened in this game? Oh, Cooper Flag just goes for 35-8 on 13 of 22 from the field. Now, the three-point shot isn’t quite there yet, and this is sort of what I expected to start his career. He was never a great three-point shooter. Now, he did have a decent percentage at Duke last year, but uh that’s what NBA scouts were most concerned about coming into the league was that he needed to develop that three-point shot and do it a little more consistently. And there is no question, I think he would tell you that it needs improvement himself. He’s shooting just 25.3% from three this year on almost four attempts a night. Um, and you would you would like him to be somewhere around league average, you know, somewhere around 33 to 34% from three-point land. And if he did that, you’d see his scoring average jump maybe two or three points a night. And you’re looking at a guy who is putting up all-star caliber numbers as an 18-year-old. This guy is just so fun to watch. And he really does bring energy to the Mavericks that maybe they kind of needed over the last couple of years. Like on both ends of the court, you can just tell with the passion, the aggression that he plays with. And that’s really what Jason Kit is looking for from Flag. Like he wants him to make mistakes. He wants him to grow into games. And he wants him to grow into being a leader as well. I think Coupe is going to be that guy for the Mavericks going forward. And he has some pretty decent guys to learn from here on this roster. You have Kyrie Irving, you have Anthony Davis as guys who have been there and done that in the league. Obviously Klay Thompson’s a four-time NBA champ and has been there and done that in the league. So having those vets alongside the young coupe is going to absolutely help him and help the Mavericks in the long run. They’re not going to be bad for long with him. I think I I I know that much. Like the Mavericks won 32 games in Luca’s rookie season and then the next year they were instantly contending in the West. I kind of think you’re going to see a similar jump. Like we know that the Mavericks are not going to be very good this year, but if you get that same sophomore jump that you got from Luca, the Mavericks could be back in the playoff conversation as early as next season, and it would all be because of number 32. Let’s show Cooper Flag some love down there in the comments. Absolutely love what I’m seeing from the Rook right now. Spam those 32s down below if you’re also excited about what you’re seeing from Cooper Flag. All right, so I wanted to revisit this. Here was my 2526 stat projection for Cooper Flag. I put this out over the summer and this is what I had. I had him at 16.6 points, 7.2 boards, and 4.5 assists. And then a block and a half and about a steal and a half per night, shooting 43% from the field and 32 1.5% from three. So now let’s take a look at his actual stats from this season. The points, I pretty much nailed that, right? I’m going I’m proud of myself there. I was 16.6 projected. Now he’s averaging 16.7. He’s averaging more rebounds than I thought and an assist less. Uh the blocks aren’t quite there yet as he’s just really not protecting the rim that much because he’s playing more out on the perimeter. The steels are right there. The field goal percentage is higher than I thought, but the three-point percentage is much lower than I thought. But at the end of the day, look, he has played like the rookie of the year candidate that we all thought he was going to be this season. Is he going to win rookie of the year? Maybe not because the Mavericks might not win enough games and there are other really really good rookies out there like Connepple is playing excellent, Derek Queen is playing excellent and there are a few other guys who are playing really well as well. But I do think that Flag will absolutely be in that conversation if not win it and as time goes on like I think you’re he’s going to be in the conversation of being a multi-time all-star franchise cornerstone type player. Now, I’m not ready to put him in the Dirk Luca category of generational superstars like that the Mavericks are passing the torch like Dirk passed the torch to Luca. I’m not ready to say that Luca has passed the torch to Cooper Flag as this franchise next like love beloved son so to speak, but I don’t know if he’s that far off and I think he’s approaching that territory much quicker than I imagine he even would. Like it’s crazy to I I maybe my expectations were just a little bit tampered for him just because I didn’t really know how he would transition to the NBA right away, but he’s transition to the NBA game way quicker than I imagined. And we got to be seriously discussing Cooper Flag as someone that you can absolutely build this franchise around. And we will be here every step of the way right here on Mavericks TV. The Cooper Flag era of Mavericks basketball is here. So come along for the ride. It’s going to be really, really fun. It’ll have its ups and downs of course, but you know, watching this guy throughout his journey, I would love to do it together. So, hit that subscribe button if you are ready for the Cooper Flag era of Mavericks basketball. Now, the question is, how do the Mavericks really build around him? And how do they see this long-term playing out? Do they look at him as a point guard? Do they look at him as more of a forward, more of a wing hybrid? That’s a very interesting question that the Mavericks are going to have to answer here pretty quickly, especially if he’s going to continue to play this well and elevate his play like he has even in just the first 20 games of the season. We’ll discuss some options here in just a moment. But before we do that, today’s show is sponsored by Price Pix. The holiday season is here and I’m super excited for this show to be sponsored by Price Pix. Look, you and I make decisions every single day what games to watch, what gifts to buy, all of that stuff. But you can be right on Price Pix and you can get paid by making those decisions. Price has a new feature alert as well where they are now offering early payouts. If your lineup gets off to a hot start, you may now have the option to cash out those winnings before the game even finishes. And Price Pix is also offering stacks, meaning you can put the same player up to three times in the same lineup. And you can do that only on Prize Pix, the best place to win in over 40 states, including California, Georgia, and Texas. I do have a projection for the football slate tonight. I’m going to take the more on Drake May passing yards. Give me the more on Jackson Dart passing passing, rushing and receiving touchdowns at 1 and a half. And I’m going to take the less on Young Way Couping points at 5 and a half. So you can copy my picks or make picks of your own. Just please make sure you do it with our friends over at Price Pix. Download the Price Pix app today and use code CLNS for $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup. one more time. That is code CLNS for $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup. Price fix. It is good to be right. Here are the future pieces on the Mavericks roster that I think you can take into this new era of Cooper flag basketball with the Mavericks. Obviously, PJ Washington, who is who is going to be in the first year of his extension next season, he he will absolutely be a part of this team’s core going forward. I think Max Christie is someone that’ll be a part of this team’s core going forward. and Ryan Nemhard, who has been absolutely excellent in the limited minutes that he has played. He’s on a two-way deal this year. That will not be for long. Ryan Nemard will be on this team’s roster, and I could see him being like a decadel long backup point guard in the league. And maybe he’s even better than that. I really liked what I’ve seen from Ryan Nemard in his limited action so far. And I think he absolutely should be playing over the likes of D’Angelo Russell and whoever else, Jaden Hardy, and whoever else the Mavericks want to throw out there. Give me Nemhard over those guys. and Derek Lively, he has a question mark next to it simply just because we don’t know how healthy he’s ever going to be. Like I would love for Lively to be a building piece for the future alongside Flag, but I’m just not sure that he can play more than 41 games in a season. And if he can’t, then you just simply cannot build with him going forward. We’ve talked about it. He’s extension eligible this summer. The Mavericks cannot give him that extension unless he proves without question that he can remain healthy and be available for this team the rest of the season. But the moral of the story is there is a lot of work to do on this roster to make it a contender. Now the biggest, you know, part of the equation is obviously Cooper Flag and if he is going to elevate his game like I think he can be able to, then the Mavericks timeline also accelerates into what this team could be capable of. Like maybe that makes them rethink trading Anthony Davis. Maybe it makes them rethink potentially putting Kyrie Irving on the market. Now, Kyrie, by all reports, is not available for a trade right now, but that could obviously change as time goes on. But I think Cooper Flag is the kind of prospect that will make the Mavericks franchise re-evaluate what their timeline is as far as contending goes. And I just hope that the new GM, whoever it is, whether it’s Michael Finley, whether it’s Dennis Lindseay, whether it’s another external candidate we haven’t even discussed, their main goal and their sole purpose as GM of the Dallas Mavericks is to build around Cooper Flag because that is really what this franchise needs at this point in time. They need someone to rally around. They need someone who’s going to sell jerseys, who’s going to sell tickets, who’s going to be the face of the franchise. And that is number 32. I’m fully ready to admit that he is the guy that this team needs to completely build around. And maybe I’m late to the party. And if that’s the case, so be it. But I’ve just been very, very, very pleased with what I’ve seen from Flag through the first 20 games. And hopefully it can continue throughout the rest of the season. And we continue to see him getting better and better. Like I I hope that he has another game where he scores 35 plus points and he sets a new career high here in his rookie season. I think that would be absolutely awesome. Uh the upcoming schedule for the Dallas Mavericks, they play tonight at Denver. That one is an 800 PM tip off. Then they have the Heat at home on Wednesday, then they go to Oklahoma City on Friday. And a little backto-back coming back home against Houston on Saturday. And then they have a six-day break between the time they uh play the Rockets and then they’ll play the Brooklyn Nets. And that’s just because of all the NBA Cup BS that goes on. I mean, just another ridiculous Adam Silver idea that we have a 6-day break in the middle of December. But that’s neither here nor there. So, if I’m the Mavs, you know, and I’m watching this, I would just love to win one of these games. Like, this is a really tough stretch. We’re talking about four playoff teams right here, arguably four teams that you could see playing in June in the NBA Finals. Like, the Heat have been a surprise team this year. They’ve been absolutely fantastic. Mavericks played them really close in their first game last week, but didn’t get it done. And, you know, they they could absolutely beat the Heat. Denver will be a tough game tonight. Uh they played the Thunder really close as well and they’ve played the Rockets close. Like they’ve they’ve played everybody close. They have played the most clutch games in the league. They just can’t figure out how to finish yet. But again, as Cooper Flag matures, I think that number will improve. And as that number improve, this team’s standings will improve. Maybe not this season, but it could be for next year and beyond. That will do it for today’s show, guys. Appreciate you for tuning in to Mavericks Today by Chat Sports. As always, hit that subscribe button cuz we’ll have you up to date with all the latest Mavericks news and rumors, including anything that happens from tonight’s game.

Today’s show on Cooper Flagg is presented by PrizePicks! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Cooper Flagg highlights have seen Flagg get better and better throughout the course of the 2025-26 NBA Season. Flagg has been as advertised, and even despite Mavs head coach Jason Kidd putting Flagg in uncomfortable situations, Flagg has excelled. The new Mavericks GM will be tasked with building the Mavs roster around Flagg, which will look different after the 2026 NBA trade deadline amid the Anthony Davis trade rumors.

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The Mavericks’ upcoming schedule:
12/1: at Denver
12/3: vs. Heat
12/5: at Thunder
12/6: vs. Rockets

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Cooper Flagg’s State in the 2025-26 NBA Season:
16.7 PPG, 6.6 RPG/3.5 APG, 0.6 BPG/1.4 SPG, 46.2 FG%, 25.3 3P%

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33 comments

  23. Cooper should be going for 17 shots a game to gain some confidence and show his aggressiveness more. I believe he has it in him just like he did in college

  25. He was supposed to be the unquestioned top prospect of 2025, head and shoulders above the others, generational – franchise changing talent. If Cooper doesn’t win ROY, that means we picked the wrong player. Wins/losses don’t really factor in when deciding ROY because typically top prospects go to very bad teams.

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