22 hours Ago
Newark, N.J. • Three years ago, a future Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year walked into a gym and saw Cooper Flagg do Cooper Flagg things.
The first play he witnessed: the 6-foot-9 Flagg, masquerading as a guard, hit his primary defender with an in-and-out, dispatched of the oncoming help with a crossover, and spun into the lane for two. A dizzyingly good introduction. “I just looked back, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s definitely the truth,‘” Duke guard Darren Harris recalled.
The talent, dripping from Flagg’s long frame, has always been there. But it’s more than that that has so many NBA scouts drooling over Duke’s best player since Zion Williamson. “He doesn’t really force the issue,” Arizona’s Tobe Awaka said after Flagg went for 30 points in the Sweet 16 to end the Wildcats’ season.
“He’s a great player. But lets the game come to him. You can’t really speed him up.
” And there is the essence of Flagg’s greatness — the unique marriage of skill and basketball maturity. The promise of it calls out to NBA teams — including the Utah Jazz and their 14% chance to get the once-in-a-blue-moon type player in the upcoming draft. Their tank for Flagg has been arduous, 59 losses and counting, but it would be worth the price if the lottery balls bounce Utah’s way.
Because seemingly every team left in Duke’s wake says the same thing: The player atop everyone’s draft boards is the real deal this time. “We switched it up. Started with something and kind of changed halfway through,” Arizona guard Anthony Dell’Orso said.
“But he’s a great player and it is hard to stop great players. We tried to make it as hard as possible. I thought we did a good job.
” In this case, a good job constituted a line that looked like this: 30 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Sometimes it is just that difficult. “You’re not going to hold him down to 10 points,” said Alabama head coach Nate Oats, Flagg’s next victim in the Elite Eight.
“That’s just not happening. Well, let’s hold him in single digits. He’s going to find his way to score some buckets.
That’s just it.” This bucket by Cooper Flagg tells me so much about his arsenal. Control, feet work, timing and touch.
He's a pure scorer. pic.twitter.
com/kdukSo8PUy The challenge, as Oats sees it, is Flagg does almost everything well. He can initiate offense and punish teams that choose to defend him one-on-one. Against the Tide, he took the ball coast to coast several times and finished at the rim to extend the Blue Devil lead.
Bama’s 6-foot-1 guard Mark Sears accidentally switched onto Flagg in a momentary lapse. Flagg recognized it, nearly lost his dribble falling down, but still managed to navigate to the hoop and finish with the off-hand. The circus play looked like he was improvising.
Instead, it was a calculated advantage. “I think his IQ [is what stands out]. Obviously you know he’s talented.
You see the highlight reel plays and how athletic he is,” Oats said. If teams take their chances forcing him to shoot, that’s a gamble too. On the first play against Alabama, Grant Nelson tried to get a half step on Flagg by going under the screen — fearing the attack.
Flagg rose up and buried a 33-footer instead. He is shooting 37% from three, 53% from the field and 83% from the free throw line. Most coaches give up and take their chances at the rim.
“We definitely would have rather him shooting catch and shoot threes than driving to the rim,” Awaka said. “Not to say he can’t catch and shoot, but you have to pick your poison with him.” And if defenses really want to throw bodies at him, he’s tall enough to pass over the top and give his teammates looks from three.
It’s a puzzle that is made even more complicated by how Duke uses him. Head coach Jon Scheyer loads him up with pick-and-rolls. The combination of control, finishing and passing is enough to send teams into a blender.
It led Oats, at one point, to instruct his team to just be as physical as possible with the freshman. If you can’t stop him, at least make it difficult. “We wanted big collisions,” Alabama big man Mouhamed Dioubate said.
“I thought we limited him until the very end.” Again, limited is relative. Flagg still finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists and the Blue Devils cruised to a 20-point win to get to the Final Four.
Perhaps the only real knock on Flagg is that he can be passive at times. He had five turnovers against Kansas and six against Miami. He coughed the ball up seven times against Wake Forest early in the year.
“Being a freshman, teams try to speed you up and out of rhythm,” his wingmate Tyrese Proctor said of his early struggles. “It comes naturally just playing in games.” It can be understood for an 18-year-old who reclassified to play at Duke this year.
After all, ask him what he likes to do is his spare time and he’ll give you a very average answer. “Like to play video games with my friends. Normal teenage things,” he said Friday before he cut down the nets for the Final Four.
But halfway through this year, Flagg realized he could be a normal teenager, but not a normal basketball player. He couldn’t be when Newark was filled with fans wearing Williamson NBA jerseys, wanting autographs from the next best prospect from Durham. “He was just trying to figure out who he was, trying to fit in,” Harris said.
“But I think with players like that, you can’t really fit in. You have to fit out.” Flagg plays that way now.
He’s averaging 19.5 points, 5.3 assists and 7.
7 rebounds in the tournament. He has Duke back in the Final Four, something Williamson couldn’t do. And after he wraps up his time in San Antonio, he’ll be on to the NBA.
“Cooper is about to move on with something incredibly special with the next step he’s going to go after this,” Scheyer said. The Jazz would love for it to take place in Salt Lake City. For those who tried to stop him, he’s worth every penny.
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