Cooper Flagg, at just 18 years old, carries a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders. He’s tipped to be a future face of the league and lead the Dallas Mavericks franchise to success. But he can’t deliver at an elite level immediately, no matter how talented he is, especially if he’s being played out of position like he currently is.
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Flagg is a small forward, but he’s mainly being used as a point guard. Celtics legend Kevin Garnett discussed this during a recent edition of his KG Certified podcast alongside Paul Pierce. The Big Ticket began by commending young Cooper for staying cool under pressure in his first week as an NBA superstar.
The 18-year-old scored only 10 points in the Dallas opener against the red-hot Spurs and the returning Victor Wembanyama. He followed that with 18 points in his second game, a loss to Washington. Yesterday, he put up his best stat line yet: 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 139-129 win over the Raptors. Things are looking up for the Duke alum, but Garnett remains cautiously optimistic at best.
“When you player better talent, it’s another level. You know what I’m saying? So I thought he held his own. I thought he kept his cool,” he said. And he’s not wrong. The noticeable progression in Cooper’s game shows that he is already getting more comfortable despite his lack of lighting up the scoreboard.
Garnett then quickly pointed out his concern. “I don’t like him at point guard. I do not like these small forwards playing point guard. The point guard is very, very difficult to play. The decision-making that goes into it, having to please all the scorers. You actually have to come in knowing how to facilitate that,” he stated.
“I think he’s better hitting the wings, being a slasher, using his athleticism, his youthfulness. You need Cooper running man. You don’t need him bringing it up 94 feet,” added KG, who already seems to have a solution for Dallas’s scheme.
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It’s not a bad point at all that the Hall of Famer is making, but it would require Dallas to rethink their strategy. For months, head coach Jason Kidd and minority owner Mark Cuban have emphasized how much they wanted to see Flagg play at the point guard position.
“I’m sending texts to Jason Kidd like, point guard, point guard, point guard. Let him bring the ball up.” Cuban said during an offseason media scrum. His point was that if Flagg brought it up, it gave Dallas, one of the bigger NBA teams, a size advantage everywhere else.
Kidd later echoed that same sentiment during a separate press conference back in June. “I don’t look at the position, I want to put him at point guard. I want to make him uncomfortable,” claimed the famed point guard.
