It’s certainly true that exhibition play is not really regular season NBA play. There is a lot going on that you don’t have when the wins and losses count. You want to look and see how the marginal players
might fit in, you want to see if some older veterans still have it and you want to get an idea of where your rookies are too.
Which brings us to Cooper Flagg, a product of Duke and now a Dallas Maverick.
Does he belong?
It’s early of course, but when you see this video, you see a guy who is fluid, smart and – well, we saw all of that at Duke of course. What’s different here is first the opposition is on a higher level obviously. He seems to do okay. And secondly, on offense, even though Flagg only scored 10 points, does he look comfortable? Like he belongs?
Aside from his 10 points, he also had six rebounds and three assists and at least one block as you’ll see.
And he looks entirely at ease. One thing that we may not have fully anticipated is that he is now playing with people who are closer to his talent level. That’s not to knock anyone at Duke, but look how easily he works with these guys. It’s really impressive. He’s already one of them. Not to get too far ahead here, but it reminds us a bit of Larry Bird showing up in Boston and those guys being gobsmacked by just how good he was.
We’re not comparing Flagg to Bird other than he appears to be ahead of schedule. Just 19, he looks totally at ease here.
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