Cooper Flagg’s NBA start has been a mix of individual brilliance and team struggles. Two nights ago he scored a career-high 42 points in an overtime loss to the Jazz, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to hit 40+ points. But Dallas hasn’t been able to turn his scoring into wins consistently. And at 10-17, they have a long way to go if they hope to even make the Play-In in spring.
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Some of the Mavs’ misfortunes were just bad luck. Injuries hit the Mavericks hard, with stars like Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II sidelined and leaving Flagg as the main option alongside a beaten down Anthony Davis. After a decorated college career full of championships, this is the most Flagg has ever lost, making this season a tough adjustment.
The goods news is that Cooper is young. He’s still 18-years-old and he has a Hall of Famer in Jason Kidd as his head coach. In fact, Kidd is extremely happy with the progress that the Duke alum has made. He spoke about it during a recent press conference with the NBA media, where he was asked about how Flagg can improve his game even further.
“Two things: time and strength,” stated the Nets and Mavs legend. “And we can’t speed up time and we can’t speed up strength. He’ll be 19 in 5 days.” It was a very shadowy answer, one that could mean a plethora of things. Fortunately, Kidd broke down moments later what Flagg has already gone through to grow his game on the hardwood.
Jason Kidd when asked what’s Cooper Flagg’s best area of growth after playing point guard to begin the season:
“Time and strength. And we can’t speed up time and we can’t speed up strength…As he gets stronger, again, the sky is the limit and time, just absorbing all the… pic.twitter.com/feLxTQGIQt
— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) December 19, 2025
“Being able to put him in pick & roll as soon as we could in Summer League and the beginning of the season so he can digest that. Being able to be pressured by the best defender every night just due to injury,” he stated. Again, Flagg was not expected to be thrust into such a prominent role for the Mavs at this point. But while things started a little hazy, he certainly has turned it up a bit.
Kidd later predicted that the losing will help Flagg’s mentality even further. “As he gets stronger, again, the sky is the limit and time, just absorbing all the different situations of going through winning and losing, and losing in the sense that he’s lost more games now than he ever has in his life. And just so being able to digest that losing doesn’t always mean that you’re a loser. That you can learn and flip that into a positive because you play so many games.”
If anything, this season is setting Cooper Flagg up for a long and successful career. He’s already shown he can take over games in the clutch, being fourth in the league in total clutch points at 58 while handling the pressure of making up for an injury-riddled roster. The losses sting now, but under Kidd’s guidance, Flagg is learning lessons that go beyond stats.
At just 18, the sky is still very much the limit for him, and if he keeps building on these experiences, the Mavericks’ future looks a lot brighter than their current record suggests. Imagine what they might look like with a healthy Irving and Lively back in the roster. Cooper can’t do it alone, but he’s shown that he won’t go down without swinging either.
