Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discuss how Dallas has utilized the number one overall pick early in his rookie campaign and why he is continuing to work through a change in positons. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
How can we make life easier for Cooper Flag?
I’m still on the side of patience with Cooper Flag.
Young player, young league, success in life and in the NBA it’s not always linear.
And Kevin Durant had a great quote after their game against the Mavericks, talking about Cooper flag, and he actually brought up himself.
KD came in the college playing the 4 and 5, and he came in the league playing the 2.
So it’s a position change that can throw you off early in your career and that flag is still working through.
I do think he’s still working through it.
Part of the appeal of Cooper Flag, his ability to be put in different spots on the court.
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Someone who can operate in pick and roll.
He’s someone who can get a triple hand off and get downhill.
You, you can put him in off ball actions, backdoor cuts.
He’s good with movement.
We’ve seen Dallas clear aside, let him post up.
You mentioned how do we get to the easy of it all.
Their last two games against Detroit and Houston.
Who’s guarding Cooper flag?
Uh, Thompson, pick one.
Yeah.
So now you’re in a different role.
You’ve got different people guarding you and they’re working to take some of that appeal away, that overall appeal away of what you do as far as the totality of it.
OK. Do you wanna be in the off all movement?
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Denial.
Fantastic.
You, you wanna be in pick and roll ball pressure.
Do you want to post up Help show.
Like they’re, they’re poking at all of the things that Cooper Flag does, and so the context makes it interesting.
How do they open things up for him?
The area of opportunities for him to understand what the reads are.
Setting up his man to come off screens and pick and roll and reading the defense once he gets a screen.
Understanding when a shot is there, when a pass is there.
So he’s gonna get these reps and you have to balance out, OK, do we hit the easy button?
And get him going a little bit, or do we have the balance of, we need you to get to this level, you’re gonna have to get these reps in different actions.
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He’s at his best when he’s decisive, when he makes quick decisions, when he’s playing the game.
So I, I would preach again patience with Cooper Flag, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how do you balance making things easier for him and letting him do things you know he can do versus, hey, we need the growth and the opportunities there.