{"id":608290,"date":"2026-02-17T16:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:24:20","slug":"marc-stein-reveals-cooper-flagg-injury-outlook-after-boot-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608290\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Stein reveals Cooper Flagg injury outlook after boot stir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/dallas-mavericks\/mavericks-rumors-kyrie-irving-strong-role-deciding-injury-return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Mavericks have been dealing with injuries<\/a> to top stars like Kyrie Irving, another key player who&#8217;s dealing with an issue is rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/cooper-flagg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cooper Flagg<\/a>. With the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/dallas-mavericks\/mavericks-news-cooper-flagg-seen-wearing-boot-attending-duke-basketball-game\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mavericks rookie in Flagg seen wearing a boot<\/a> while <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeACurtis2\/status\/2022725117802090721?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">attending a Duke basketball game<\/a>, the latest reporting goes into his outlook regarding his injury.<\/p>\n<p>According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Flagg is wearing the boot since MRI results revealed he has a left midfoot sprain, which, with that diagnosis, Dallas <a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/can-nba-tanking-be-stopped-fixed?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=392205&amp;post_id=187708660&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=false&amp;r=39f60&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cfeels fortunate.\u201d<\/a> Despite not knowing a timeline for his return, the team \u2018appears relieved&#8217; with the left midfoot sprain, since it could&#8217;ve been worse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCooper Flagg was indeed spotted with a boot on his left foot Saturday at Duke&#8217;s home game against Clemson, but league sources tell The Stein Line that Dallas feels fortunate that last week&#8217;s MRI results on Flagg only revealed a left midfoot sprain,\u201d Stein wrote Monday. \u201cIt is still not known precisely how long the 19-year-old will be sidelined, but the Mavericks appear relieved that the injury was not more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cooper Flagg is in attendance for today\u2019s Duke game. He\u2019s wearing a boot for his left midfoot sprain. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TX5G0FGIFY\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/TX5G0FGIFY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Curtis (@MikeACurtis2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeACurtis2\/status\/2022725117802090721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What the Mavericks&#8217; \u201cgreater concern\u201d is with Cooper Flagg&#8217;s injury<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3700777\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cooper-Flagg-with-hands-on-hips.jpg\" alt=\"Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) looks on in the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>While<a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/dallas-mavericks\/mavericks-news-cooper-flagg-miss-all-star-weekend-foot-sprain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Flagg had to miss out on representing the Mavericks during All-Star weekend,<\/a> there&#8217;s no denying that the team will take it cautiously, as he is the player who will be built around for the foreseeable future. As Stein notes, the \u201cgreater concern\u201d for Dallas is \u201cnursing\u201d the 19-year-old with the team having lost nine straight to head into the All-Star break, leading to a 19-35 record at this point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe greater concern for the Mavericks \u2014 provided, of course, that the injury gets no worse \u2014 figures to be nursing Flagg through the ongoing losing of a 19-35 season,\u201d Stein wrote. \u201cDallas has lost nine games in a row, which is surely the longest losing skid of Flagg&#8217;s basketball life and definitely ranks as the franchise&#8217;s longest since a 15-gamer in 1997-98.\u201de<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, it remains to be seen when Flagg returns, as the Mavericks are 12th in the Western Conference, with their first game after the break on Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Dallas Mavericks have been dealing with injuries to top stars like Kyrie Irving, another key player&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,225,686,149,4057,166,6,14502,6050],"class_list":{"0":"post-608290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallasmavericks","13":"tag-mavericks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-injury","16":"tag-nba-rumors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116086904357234024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}