The date is Tuesday, November 12, 2024. College basketball season is just eight days old, and you’re watching perhaps the biggest matchup of the season to date. The Kentucky Wildcats are playing the Duke
Blue Devils on ESPN, and it’s a tight game coming down the stretch. In fact, the game is tied at 72 with just 20 seconds left, and Duke is about to do something for the first time this season: Put the ball in true freshman Cooper Flagg’s hands and let him go win a ball game for them. However, this was no storybook ending for Flagg and the Dukies, as Cooper committed turnovers on back-to-back possessions in a five-point loss.
In that first marquee game against the Wildcats, Flagg had just two assists and three turnovers. In Duke’s first game against Arizona in Tucson, Cooper had three assists and four turnovers. And in their last marquee out of conference game against Kansas, Cooper Flagg had three assists to five turnovers. It all bore out in the eye test, too. While Flagg certainly had his moments in all of those games, for the most part it looked like he was uncomfortable trying to be the engine for a team’s offense in the early stages of the season. Sounds familiar, right?
Once Duke got into conference play, Flagg blossomed in his role. Sure, his first ten games last year at Duke (as a 17-year-old, mind you) were a bit clunky. Those next 20 games? How does 21.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists on 53% shooting from the field and 45% from deep sound? Bear in mind that during this stretch, he had thirteen games with at least five assists.
This included the NCAA Tournament, where he played arguably his best game against the Arizona Wildcats. Remember how earlier in the season, Cooper had three assists to four turnovers against Arizona? Well, the second time out he totaled seven assists to just one turnover while having total control of the ball game. It was so good that I wrote a whole breakdown on his performance in the game. That’s the type of player this guy is.
There are already people who are ready to give up on the point-Flagg experience with the Mavericks, mostly due to the struggle that he and the team are having. However, giving up on this now would be the equivalent of breaking a butterfly out of its cocoon before it can naturally get out of it. Sure, the butterfly gets the instant gratification of getting out. But in the long run, the butterfly’s wings are too weak to fly on its own because it didn’t endure the struggle.
Cooper Flagg is going to break out of the cocoon in the NBA. He’s only done it everywhere he’s been, from high school in Maine, to Montverde and Duke. Flagg has proven to be an elite problem solver and one who grows into the best version of himself. Go look at what Cooper Flagg’s shot looked like at Montverde Academy, and then go watch what it’s looked like so far in the NBA. Imagine telling that guy to stay confined to any given box you want to place him in.
Growing pains happen in this league, folks, especially for a guy who should be playing his freshman year at Duke this season. Flagg is a special talent who thrives off the challenges he’s presented. You don’t put elite competitors like him in a box and tell them to stay there. Instead of complaining about how this team shouldn’t put Cooper in these spots, enjoy the fight; There’s beauty in the struggle. And with a player of Cooper Flagg’s caliber, you’ll see why it was all worth it sooner rather than later. After all, he’s only been working for this his whole life.
