Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Provo, Utah. Currently writing for SB Nation and FanSided, he has covered the Utah Jazz and BYU athletics since 2024 and graduated (woohoo!) from Utah Valley University.
The Utah Jazz are in a standoff with themselves.
A necessary ache for any rebuilding basketball franchise is the inescapable thirst for a franchise savior. A messiah capable of excavating their drowning selector from the dregs of hoops hell. A specialist on all things competence. A glimmering beacon of untarnished grit and drive.
A player whose brilliance on the playing surface is so individual — so untouchable — that he could ascend to stardom in defiance of his team’s dead weight.
For the Jazz, a team that has dominated the NBA for the past calendar year in terms of dead weight per capita, a young stalwart is a mandatory step towards evolution. Shedding the curtain on this drawn-out era of reconstruction in favor of a more progressive phase of the plan, Utah is going from tear down to build up. It all starts with Monday’s lottery show.
Whiff this season, and the worst season in Utah Jazz history was too steep a price that far exceeded the final product’s value.
Utah approaches the NBA Draft Lottery — and its subsequent execution — with one goal only: come home with a prize worthy of showing off to Mommy and Daddy.
Whiff this season, and the worst season in Utah Jazz history was too steep a price that far exceeded the final product’s value. If zeroes were to populate Utah’s draft revenue by the 2025-26 season’s end, another season of abysmal performance may be too great a burden to shed. This team that is so used to losing needs… well, a bit of a win.
But this draft’s significance outweighs even the immediate future; the Jazz hope to select the first building block of a championship contender in this draft class. And while many possible suitors could fit the bill, one prospect stands alone from his peers. And you already know who I’m talking about (you read the article’s title before clicking, yes?).
Cooper Flagg makes it look easy.
Photo by Lance King/Getty Images
Cooper Flagg is the Perfect Foundation of a Championship Roster.
Cooper Flagg, the Maine Event. Duke’s Diaper Dandy and youngest player in the 2025 NBA Draft pool. The consensus number one pick and obvious can’t-miss guy of the class.
You’ve heard it all. I’ll shut up and quit pining for the Pine Tree State native whose public relations clearly need no boost.
He was the best player on one of the best teams in the nation, the Duke Blue Devils. Leading his team in every major statistical category, Flagg waved 18.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists on average, all while maintaining a true shooting percentage of 59.5%.
Impressive? Of course. But despite all this, the truth about Cooper Flagg lies beyond the box score. It pools just beneath the surface of what a quick skim could tell a viewer. What Cooper Flagg accomplishes on the basketball court lies in his ceaseless hustle, his competitive hyperdrive (which makes regular leaps to hyperspace), and a feel for the game that essentially confirms rumors that the hardwood is his natural habitat.
Of Flagg’s freshman season, I wrote the following:
“Cooper Flagg seriously has it all, and that was as apparent as ever during Duke’s run to the Final Four. The Pine Tree State native was more than comfortable attacking the skyscraping arbors in the paint […] Coop can put it in the hoop, and he’ll do literally everything else while he’s at it. His game will effortlessly translate to the NBA.”
(Read our 2025 NBA Draft Big Board v. 2.0 here.)
While I stand by every word of that quote, I still feel the need to contextualize what this means for the Utah Jazz.
This team is one without a foundation, no identity, and no backbone for a future of sustained success — which is the entire purpose behind this rebuilding process. This is no slight to Walker Kessler, Lauri Markannen, Kyle Filipowski, Keyonte George, or any other current Jazzmen who have displayed flashes of NBA stardom, but let’s call this as it is: the Jazz are stuffed with supplementary pieces occupying their depth chart.
Utah needs a piece to build around. This draft class has plenty of potential all-star talent within its confines, but Flagg is the perfect candidate to take this blank slate and install the foundational pieces necessary to aim at a future championship.
Cooper Flagg is a marble pillar. If you build a team on top of him, don’t be surprised to see it stand the test of time.
A versatile defender capable of battling with bigs and tangling with speedy perimeter-dwellers. A hustling maniac willing to get dirty and fight for any loose ball, any chase-down block, and any perceivable weakness in the opposition. A strong 3-level scorer and jack-of-all-trades capable of becoming master of all, Flagg can become the Avatar of the NBA, capable of mastering all four basketball elements.
This NBA Draft Lottery is tremendously significant for many reasons, primarily securing an individual capable of inspiring his compatriates when the time to compete arrives. Utah’s draft position won’t only dictate their future win totals, but the franchise’s capacity to win a championship.
Dylan Harper could become an All-NBA guard. Ace Bailey may be one of the more gifted weapons in basketball. But Cooper Flagg is a marble pillar. If you build a team on top of him, don’t be surprised to see it stand the test of time.
I cannot understate: the first overall pick is an absolute game-changer this season.