While Duke freshman Cooper Flagg is widely considered the best draft-eligible prospect in college basketball, one NBA executive is going to maintain “an open mind about who the No. 1 pick might be.”
“This is how mistakes are made: getting anchored to an opinion and then closing yourself off to new, much more important information that we’ll be receiving in the coming months seeing how the season plays out,” the executive said to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.
“I need to see if Cooper Flagg is indeed a No. 1-type offensive option who can be expected to carry a team at some point in his career, or if he’s more of a superstar role player who is better suited as your second- or third-best player. Every year there are surprises, new players pop up and others take an unexpected leap.”
Basketball fans have eagerly awaited Flagg’s arrival in college. Early into his high school career, he looked like not just the best high school player in the country but a potentially significant talent within a draft context.
As a senior at Montverde Academy, he averaged 16.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks. Leading up to the 2024 Summer Olympics, he was also selected for USA Basketball’s Select Team to help sharpen the Olympic squad and was the only college player to receive the honor.
Flagg turned heads with how, at 17, he held his own against experienced NBA vets and some of the biggest stars in the league.
Still, it would be foolish to conclude before he has appeared in a single game for Duke that Flagg is the unquestioned No. 1 pick and there’s nothing anybody can do to change that.
Heading into the 2021-22 season and early into the year, Chet Holmgren had staked out a claim as the top player on draft boards. Paolo Banchero wound up overtaking him and went first overall to the Orlando Magic.
On a lesser scale, Brandon Miller steadily improved his position in the 2023 draft class and got picked No. 2 ahead of Scoot Henderson, who had held a sizable lead over him when the 2022-23 season opened.
Flagg would be the obvious choice if the 2025 NBA draft happened today. Between now and next summer, talent evaluators are basically in a position where they have to find a reason why he shouldn’t be the No. 1 pick, though, because that’s what happens with the consensus favorite.
Maybe all of that scrutiny unearths something that wasn’t readily apparent when he was dominating the high school ranks.
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