Even with the other superstars on the Dallas Mavericks, it has been rookie Cooper Flagg leading headlines for the team in Texas to begin the 2025-26 NBA season.
However, after being selected first overall in the most recent draft, the top prospect hasn’t looked like a game-changing player through the first week of his career. While he did finally have a strong performance of 22 points, four rebounds, and four assists in a win against the Toronto Raptors, an assistant coach for Dallas isn’t worried about his slower-than-expected development.
According to Tim McMahon of the Hoop Collective podcast, an unnamed Mavericks assistant told him that the team is happy Flagg is playing up to the ability of an NBA starter, despite his status as the youngest player in the NBA.
“I was talking to a Mavs assistant, and they basically said, ‘Hey, if Cooper ends up averaging like 14, seven and six, and making plays defensively like he does, then that’s gonna be a really, really good rookie season for a kid who doesn’t turn 19 until [December 21],’” MacMahon recalled. “The fact that he’s already a solid starter in the NBA at this age is remarkable.”
Through the first three games of his career, Flagg is averaging 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on 43.9% shooting in 31.7 minutes per game. However, while his game against the Raptors was the most statistically significant of his career, the young star has been put in a playmaking role, one that has come with a greater learning curve than if the rookie were playing on the wing.
Mavericks Struggles At PG To Begin Season
Much has been made about Flagg starting at the point guard position for Dallas. However, with Kyrie Irving still recovering from an ACL injury and D’Angelo Russell playing relatively inconsistently at this point in his career, the rookie is likely head coach Jason Kidd’s best choice.
“There’s a line of coaches who’ve had D’Angelo Russell, who can understand why J-Kidd doesn’t want to play him,” McMahon said about Flagg playing the lead playmaker role for Dallas. “But you don’t have a whole lot of guards on this roster who are available.”
The forward showed immense play-making potential while at Duke, and even though the position requires a much different skillset at the NBA level, Kidd and Dallas decided to have him start the offense early in the team’s season over Russell.
“The Cooper Flagg experiment at point guard is what they should be doing for the long-term,” Tim Bontempts added, before then explaining how Russell can fit alongside Flagg in the lineup. “If (Russell) doesn’t have it in a game and you want to pull him at some point, that’s fine. But, he can have nights like tonight, when he can really get hot and make a bunch of shots.”
Russell had 24 points and six assists off the bench in the win for Dallas. While he has shown signs in the past of being a lead playmaker on a contending team, the Mavericks have still chosen Flagg over him in the starting lineup. Dallas has committed 57 turnovers through their first three games of the season, and though Kidd hasn’t committed to Flagg long-term at point guard, he hopes whoever takes the role helps fix that issue.
Cooper Flagg’s Historic Bounce-Back Game
Flagg did have eight turnovers on a combined 10/27 shooting in the first two games of the year, but bounced back with his performance against Toronto. While he has yet to show signs of becoming a top-tier playmaker, his scoring prowess was on display.
According to McMahon, Flagg’s 22 points make him the fifth-youngest player in NBA history to score at least 20 points. The insider added that he “joins Kobe Bryant as the only players to have 20 points and no turnovers in a game before turning 19 since turnovers became a stat in the ’77-’78 season.”
Now 1-2, Flagg said he wants to use the team’s first victory of the year as a ‘baseline’ going forward.
“The fans have showed up for the first three games, and I thought tonight was really the first time we gave ’em something to be excited for and be on their feet for,” Flagg said after the win. “We want to build off tonight, use it as a baseline. This team needs to just keep building and getting better.”
The highlight play of the night was a Flagg dunk in the third quarter. Speaking postgame, both Russell and center Derrick Lively said plays like Flagg’s dunk help the team and crowd gain energy.
“When he’s getting the crowd going like that, our team feeds off it,” said Russell. “Everybody wants to see him do great. So when he’s performing like that, it’s contagious.”
“He’s bringing his energy, getting him above the rim,” Lively added. “The whole crowd loves it. That brings us alive.”
While it may have taken longer than some expected for Flagg to have a staple game early in his career, Sunday night was a strong moment for the rookie.
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