Cooper Flagg was everything he needed to be at Summer League

It was a good weekend for the 18-year-old

The Dallas Mavericks went to Las Vegas with one stated goal for this NBA Summer League: make Cooper Flagg uncomfortable. For two games in Vegas, Flagg seemingly passed every test that the Mavericks and his opponents threw at him. Because of that, the Mavericks shut him down for the remainder of Summer League.

Flagg was largely excellent over the course of his 63 minutes played across two games. In his first game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Flagg endured a tough shooting night. However, he turned the ball over just once, drew nine fouls and handled full court pressure thrown at him by the Lakers on every possession, and had the block that led to his assist on Ryan Nembhard’s game winner. In his final game against the San Antonio Spurs, Flagg put up 31 points in 31 minutes, getting to the line 13 times and committing just two turnovers.

Having been there in person, there were some tangible things I noticed that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. Let’s run through the great, the good and some meh.

Great: Flagg’s physicality pops

From the jump in game one of Summer League against the Lakers, Cooper Flagg left his mark on the proceedings. It was abundantly clear that Dallas wanted to not only let him initiate offense but also force him to bring the ball up 94 feet. This was something that Flagg hardly ever did at Duke. While it wasn’t always the smoothest in the halfcourt, Flagg rarely had issues bumping defenders off of him while bringing it up. The strength he showed in doing that was very encouraging.

Flagg also had no concerns about getting to the rim, as he had several moments where he either finished through traffic or tried to yam on somebody. It was impressive to see up close against LA, because you could tell he was juiced up by the crowd and he sure tried to play to it. He’s got that same feel for the moment like Luka does, you could just sense that he wanted to put on a show early and often.

Good: Cooper is an excellent teammate

This part stood out to me, particularly in the first game since we sat directly behind the Mavs bench. Flagg only sat for eight minutes in that game against LA, but he was constantly chatting up teammates on the bench and encouraging the guys who were out there. Whether it was Ryan Nembhard and Miles Kelly or Moussa Cisse and Matthew Cleveland, Flagg was always the same and looked like he genuinely cared about what they were doing. It was great to see.

Meh: The handle

It should not be surprising, as Flagg is very much a wing and not a guard, that his handle was awfully loose at times in the half court. Early on in the Spurs game, Carter Bryant was able to force Flagg into a turnover on the right wing by staying up in him.

Flagg was able to find a rhythm over the course of the game, which goes to show just how good he already is. As the handle continues to tighten up, it’ll be interesting to see how often Flagg goes to the pull up jumper versus how often he gets downhill. I thought he was a bit happy jumper at times, but that is mainly due to him losing his legs, especially in that Lakers game. Flagg talked about it after the Spurs game, and it’s pretty apparent that he knows where he needs to work on things going forward.

As a whole, Flagg was very good in Vegas. The experience he gained here should help him in training for the remainder of the summer to get him ready for the 82-game rigor. Consider it a practice test passed, and now it’s time to get ready for the real thing.