Cooper Flagg\u2019s offensive Achilles\u2019 heel hit a new low in March. Flagg, who\u2019s a 27.8 percent shooter from 3-point range on the season, made just 18.2 percent of his attempts from deep in March. Among 199 players with at least 40 three-point attempts, his mark ranked last. Despite boasting an advanced, well-rounded game at just 19 years old, his struggles from beyond the arc are becoming harder for the Dallas Mavericks to overlook.<\/p>\n
3-point shooting woes highlight Cooper Flagg’s biggest weakness<\/p>\n
Prior to March, Flagg shot 30.2 percent from beyond the arc. Poor, but not crippling. His overall field goal percentage still sat at a strong 48.2 percent despite below-average perimeter shooting. In March, though, his inability to hit threes at even a modest rate coincided with a sharp drop in efficiency. Flagg shot just 42.4 percent from the field over the month.<\/p>\n
The bigger picture isn\u2019t much kinder. Flagg is now shooting 46.7 percent from the field and, as previously mentioned, 27.8 percent from three on the season, with a 54.3 true shooting percentage that ranks 175th among 208 qualified players.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just Flagg struggling from deep. The Mavericks as a whole have been one of the league\u2019s worst perimeter shooting teams<\/a>. Dallas ranks 27th in the NBA in three-point percentage, converting just 34.2 percent of its attempts.<\/p>\n The Dallas Mavericks struggled from beyond the arc<\/p>\n Moreover, the Mavericks rank last in the NBA in wide-open 3-point percentage, shooting just 35.0 percent on those attempts this season. While wide-open efficiency can be volatile, it\u2019s notable that Dallas also generates the fewest such looks in the league, averaging just 14.5 per game.<\/p>\n Dallas is roughly league-average or better on tight (2\u20134 feet) and open (4\u20136 feet) 3-point attempts. These splits align more closely with Flagg\u2019s shooting profile. He has actually been more effective on open looks than on wide-open ones.<\/p>\n Still, looking at the Mavericks\u2019 struggles as a whole provides context. The team\u2019s offense lacks versatility and the guard play needed to consistently create high-quality looks.<\/p>\n Flagg\u2019s burdened role exposes weakness in shooting<\/p>\n Flagg has been overtaxed<\/a>, serving as the team\u2019s primary shot-creator and distributor<\/a> at just 19. Coming into the league, he looked like he would be more of a downhill attacker. An opportunistic scorer who capitalized on plays rather than having to consistently make his own looks, at least as a rookie. While this expanded role could accelerate his development, it has also contributed to his struggles from deep.<\/p>\n This overburden could impact Flagg\u2019s confidence. He wasn\u2019t a knockdown shooter from beyond the arc in college, even with a 38.5 percent mark at Duke, where he averaged just 3.6 three-point attempts per game. He relied on the same athletic, yet inconsistent, jumper he uses today.<\/p>\n There are many factors at play, but for now, Flagg\u2019s three-point struggles can be mitigated by his strengths: he shoots exceptionally well at the rim and is solid on pull-up mid-range attempts. Still, even at just 19, his biggest flaw, perimeter shooting, is becoming harder to overlook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg\u2019s offensive Achilles\u2019 heel hit a new low in March. Flagg, who\u2019s a 27.8 percent shooter from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-695654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116340182978569054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695654","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=695654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}