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Cooper Flagg is listed as questionable with back soreness on the official injury report ahead of the Dallas Mavericks’ game on Monday, December 22.
Last night, Dallas Mavericks rookie sensation Cooper Flagg chained his name with Micheal Jordan.
He is also knocking on the door of a room occupied by only Jordan, Larry Bird and former Maverick Luka Doncic.
Flagg, 19, became the first rookie since Jordan to record multiple 45-point games in a season. He’s close to having a seat at the table with Jordan, Bird and Doncic as the only rookies to average 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per game.
Yet he’s on the cusp of losing the Rookie of the Year race?
How?
Flagg has been met with stiff competition all season by Charlotte Hornets sharpshooting rookie Kon Knueppel. His almost nightly 3-point avalanches have slingshotted him to the top of the Rookie of the Year ladder, according to likely voters for the award.
With just a few games left in the regular season, there isn’t much time left for either player to convince the voters of their case. Ballots are due in less than two weeks.
Cooper Flagg makes his thoughts clear on the race
Entering the 2025-26 season, there was little doubt in the minds of many that Flagg wouldn’t win the award.
The former Duke University superstar pieced together a marvelous one-and-done season and quickly grew his stock as the easy choice to go first overall in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Entering last summer, Mavericks fans were stung. They went through a disturbing season. They lost their franchise hero and someone whom they couldn’t ever imagine in another uniform. When Doncic was traded to the Lakers, it marked arguably the most shocking sports moment — forget trade or free agency move — in history.
The move reverberated such dismay for months that even landing the first pick in the draft didn’t erase fans’ agony.
Simply put, Flagg already had enormous pressure entering his rookie season. Add being thrown into a situation with an angry fanbase, Flagg’s degree of difficulty of becoming a star alone perhaps should make him the Rookie of the Year winner.
GettyDallas Mavericks rookie forward Cooper Flagg registered a new career high on Friday, posting 51 points in Dallas’ loss to the Orlando Magic.
He hears the talk, but at least for now isn’t going to pour his energy into it.
“It is what it is,” Flagg told ESPN regarding the Rookie of the Year race. “For me, like I’ve said before, it’s just about getting better every single day. I know what I’m capable of and what I can do. So for me, it’s always been about just improving every night, going out there, competing, being the player that I know I can be, and I’ll let all the rest of the stuff figure it out.”
Flagg recorded 51 points last night, despite his team losing by double-digits and suffering its 53rd loss of the season. The 19-year-old Mavericks star went 19-for-30 from the floor, connected on six of eight 3-pointers and cashed in all seven tries from the free-throw line. He did it all in just 34 minutes, too.
Is Friday night’s scoring explosion enough to win him more votes in the Rookie of the Year race?
“I’m not sure,” Flagg said. “I would hope it would help, but like I said, I’m not going to worry about that. I’m going to worry about just getting better every single night and trying to look at a big picture and start building towards something.”
Dallas fans, Flagg is the future and deserves to be cherished
What do you call a generational talent? Pull up tape of No. 32 in blue and white and you have an answer.
He’s raw, still very-much developing and far from his peak, but yet still so good and so gifted.
It has been another trying year for Dallas. The franchise is in the lottery, but that isn’t at all a concern. Sure, losing a ton gets rough after a while, but the Mavericks are in prime position to find another future star to pair with the future superstar that is Flagg.
The organization has a ton of sorting out to do and decide what direction it wants to take with aging veterans in Kyrie Irving, who hasn’t played all season as he continues to rehab a torn ACL, and Klay Thompson.
If Dallas wants to go the route of going young but having a couple of battle-tested veterans, that is a feasible path, but it’ll need players who are consistent contributors and won’t take the ball out of Flagg’s hands. He is the centerpiece.
The season is almost over, but Flagg has a few more games left to strengthen his Rookie of the Year case.
Whether he wins it or not, there is no denying there is a new sheriff in town.
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