![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cooper-Flagg-111625--e1766423396782.jpg\")
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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.<\/p>\n
Last night, Dallas Mavericks<\/a> rookie sensation Cooper Flagg<\/a> chained his name with Micheal Jordan.\u00a0<\/p>\n He is also knocking on the door of a room occupied by only Jordan, Larry Bird and former Maverick Luka Doncic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Flagg, 19, became the first rookie since Jordan to record multiple 45-point games in a season. He\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet he\u2019s on the cusp of losing the Rookie of the Year race?<\/p>\n How?\u00a0<\/p>\n Flagg has been met with stiff competition all season by Charlotte Hornets<\/a> sharpshooting rookie Kon Knueppel<\/a>. 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n With just a few games left in the regular season, there isn\u2019t much time left for either player to convince the voters of their case. Ballots are due in less than two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooper Flagg makes his thoughts clear on the race<\/p>\n Entering the 2025-26 season, there was little doubt in the minds of many that Flagg wouldn\u2019t win the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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<\/a> Draft.<\/p>\n Entering last summer, Mavericks fans were stung. They went through a disturbing season. They lost their franchise hero and someone whom they couldn\u2019t ever imagine in another uniform. When Doncic was traded to the Lakers<\/a>, it marked arguably the most shocking sports moment \u2014 forget trade or free agency move \u2014 in history.\u00a0<\/p>\n The move reverberated such dismay for months that even landing the first pick in the draft didn\u2019t erase fans\u2019 agony.\u00a0<\/p>\n Simply put, Flagg already had enormous pressure entering his rookie season. Add being thrown into a situation with an angry fanbase, Flagg\u2019s degree of difficulty of becoming a star alone perhaps should make him the Rookie of the Year winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n GettyDallas Mavericks rookie forward Cooper Flagg registered a new career high on Friday, posting 51 points in Dallas\u2019 loss to the Orlando Magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n He hears the talk, but at least for now isn\u2019t going to pour his energy into it<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Flagg told ESPN regarding the Rookie of the Year race. \u201cFor me, like I\u2019ve said before, it\u2019s just about getting better every single day. I know what I\u2019m capable of and what I can do. So for me, it\u2019s always been about just improving every night, going out there, competing, being the player that I know I can be, and I\u2019ll let all the rest of the stuff figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Is Friday night\u2019s scoring explosion enough to win him more votes in the Rookie of the Year race?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cI would hope it would help, but like I said, I\u2019m not going to worry about that. I\u2019m going to worry about just getting better every single night and trying to look at a big picture and start building towards something.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas fans, Flagg is the future and deserves to be cherished<\/p>\n What do you call a generational talent? Pull up tape of No. 32 in blue and white and you have an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s raw, still very-much developing and far from his peak, but yet still so good and so gifted.<\/p>\n It has been another trying year for Dallas. The franchise is in the lottery, but that isn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The organization has a ton of sorting out to do and decide what direction it wants to take with aging veterans in Kyrie Irving<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t played all season as he continues to rehab a torn ACL, and Klay Thompson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll need players who are consistent contributors and won\u2019t take the ball out of Flagg\u2019s hands. He is the centerpiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n The season is almost over, but Flagg has a few more games left to strengthen his Rookie of the Year case.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether he wins it or not, there is no denying there is a new sheriff in town.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Mavericks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Cooper Flagg is listed as questionable with back soreness on the official injury report ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-698308","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\/116348074296350334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698308","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=698308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2268719630-e1775272404934.jpg\")
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