Welcome to Duke, Cooper Flagg!

Cooper Flagg put on another show for the home-state fans last night- 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks- as Montverde blew out CATS Academy 105-58. He played on the perimeter most of the time but also brought the ball up and initiated the offense on occasion. I attended the game and he displayed a dazzling display of dunks, pull-up jumpers, and threes, going 5-7 from behind the arc. On D he mostly played what looked like a one man zone underneath, collapsing on any unfortunate CATS player who ventured inside. After 2 or 3 blocks CATS stopped shooting inside and instead started taking a lot of threes, without much success. Cooper has long arms and legs and looks like a gangly guy until he starts playing. One nearby fan aptly described him as "looking like a big spider out there." Highlights: https://twitter.com/nbafuturenow/st...4?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Montverde is a lot of fun to watch. They're a disciplined, very well-coached team that plays at a frenetic pace. Their ball movement is very good, and they get a lot of dunks and open shots. They play a tough all-in man on defense. I think it's going to take a great high school team to beat them this year.
 
Waynne said:
Cooper Flagg put on another show for the home-state fans last night- 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks- as Montverde blew out CATS Academy 105-58. He played on the perimeter most of the time but also brought the ball up and initiated the offense on occasion. I attended the game and he displayed a dazzling display of dunks, pull-up jumpers, and threes, going 5-7 from behind the arc. On D he mostly played what looked like a one man zone underneath, collapsing on any unfortunate CATS player who ventured inside. After 2 or 3 blocks CATS stopped shooting inside and instead started taking a lot of threes, without much success. Cooper has long arms and legs and looks like a gangly guy until he starts playing.
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I’ve seen Flagg and Montverde several times this season. As Waynne says, Flagg plays on the perimeter on O, either as the primary or secondary O-initiator. If not unique, he’s at the very least an unusual player, a combo point-4/stretch-4/wing-3. On D, it seems he’s likely to be assigned the other team’s best O-player, at least in crunch situations. And he’s usually aware of any opposing player moving with the ball toward the basket, as he does try to block multiple shots.

Also agree re the gangly look, which is deceptive. Perhaps he’ll pick up a few pounds before next season, but against top HS competition, he doesn’t play gangly, much less frail.

Upcoming on ESPN2, Sunday 1/14, 7:30 — Montverde v. Prolific Prep (CA), which features 2025 #1 AJ Dybantsa plus several 2024 top 25 payers. Perhaps the 2 best HS teams in the country.
 
Both mkirsh and CDu make good points about, implicitly, whether we might think of Flagg as a point-4.

[Imported from 2024 NBA Draft thread]

mkirsh said:
On offense I think his game is a mix of Jabari Parker and Banchero - face up fours who have both size and quickness advantages over college defenders, with good ball handling and decent but not great jump shots - plus a little but of Filipowski's court vision and passing. He's not going to operate as the ball handler out of PNR like Roach/Proctor or a typical PG, but he can take a pass at the top of the key or mid post and make good decisions.
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CDu said:
Yeah, I think that's about right. Good ballhandler, especially for a PF. Good passer, especially for a PF. Not a great shooter but capable and streaky. A guy who you can utilize a lot on offense and be an impact player, but not a guy who you are going to have running the offense.
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More of an interior (blocks/rebounds) force on D, Flagg plays mostly, not exclusively, on the perimeter on O.

I agree with CDu that Flagg will not “run” the O, in either the sense of being the main player bringing the ball upcourt or [mkirsh’s point] of playing anything like a traditional half-court PG.

Flagg is tough to label. (Boeheim’s cryptic “He’s just different” is tantalizing.) I posted weeks back that (on O) he’s a combo point-4/stretch-4/wing-3.

His role as sometimes initiating, rather than regularly running, the O, will partially depend on whether Proctor, and to a lesser extent Roach, returns. This season Foster has not really “run” the O; he has, sometimes, initiated it. We might guess that Foster will return, and play more assertively as PG next season, sometimes running the team and initiating the O. Still plenty — plenty — of possessions for a second O-initiator. Flagg fits that bill comfortably and effectively.

Otoh, Proctor’s and/or Roach’s return, unlikely in both cases, I suppose, would leave many fewer possessions in need of a perimeter player to initiate the O. In such a crowded-with-experience-backcourt, Flagg would surely be mostly a stretch-4, the player mkirsh and CDu describe.
 
Cooper is the 2024 Gatorade National Player of the Year.
Duke commit Cooper Flagg was named the 2024 Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year on Wednesday. It's one of the most prestigious high school basketball awards in the country and Flagg beat out nearly half a million other student-athletes who play boys basketball nationwide.
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Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero surprised Flagg with the award Tuesday afternoon in the gym at Montverde Academy outside of Orlando in front of Flagg's family, high school coaches and teammates.
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https://sports.yahoo.com/duke-commi...-basketball-player-of-the-year-140007979.html
 
Is it just me or should every highlight reel on Cooper Flagg have "Jump Around" as background music?

"Homie I'm wit-cha!"
 
Nice Flagg story in the WaPost (gift link):

"Meet Cooper Flagg, the next ‘White Duke villain’ and a potential No. 1 pick"

“We definitely had that conversation with Cooper and explained the gravity of the situation,” Kelly Flagg said. “If you choose this school, you’re about to be the greatest, hated White Duke villain.

“Bring it,” Kelly Flagg remembered her son saying at the family meeting. “He’s always been fueled by negativity from the opposition. Every gym he went to his freshman year, he heard the ‘overrated’ chants. Then he would do something spectacular, and the chant would end abruptly. That’s just his personality. If you’re a basketball player, the color of your skin shouldn’t make a difference. If he can play, he can play.”

-jk
 
Great article. Here's another money quote for those who haven't watched him play a full game and might be questioning whether he's a Zion or Banchero level talent:

"The highlights don’t really do [Flagg] justice for how good of a basketball player he is,” said Banchero, the 2022 No. 1 pick and an all-star forward for the Orlando Magic. “His instincts for the game are elite. He’ll get a block, throw a pass, run the floor, get back on defense and make another play. His motor is 100 percent at all times. He’s a leader, and he’ll do whatever it takes to win. He’s not worried about getting 30 [points]. He’s out there trying to win and trying to dominate. That’s why he’ll be the No. 1 pick.”
 
Interesting on Mothers Day is the emphasis the article places on Cooper’s mother Kelly in his basketball development. She wore #32 in high school in honor of Christian Laettner.
 
Mothers

WV_Iron_Duke said:
Interesting on Mothers Day is the emphasis the article places on Cooper’s mother Kelly in his basketball development. She wore #32 in high school in honor of Christian Laettner.
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Here's hoping that 30 years from now some recruit goes to Duke because his mother wore a number in high school in honor of Cooper Flagg!
 
WV_Iron_Duke said:
Interesting on Mothers Day is the emphasis the article places on Cooper’s mother Kelly in his basketball development. She wore #32 in high school in honor of Christian Laettner.
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Yep, and gives some perspective and context to the fact she knew exactly what Cooper would be signing up for, vis a vis "national college fandom" by going to Duke. Fascinating.....


MChambers said:
Here's hoping that 30 years from now some recruit goes to Duke because his mother wore a number in high school in honor of Cooper Flagg!
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or sooner....
 
Waynne said:
More Cooper Flagg and Duke mania among young people: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/08/10/sports/high-school-sports/youngsters-excited-to-meet-cooper-flagg-at-procamp-in-orono/?utm_source=BDN+Newsletters&utm_campaign=04f92c79a4-morning&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-84251a4b9e-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=04f92c79a4&mc_eid=7e992dbb8a
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Seems pretty safe to say that if Maine produces any high level basketball talent in the next decade, Duke will be starting from a strong recruiting position.
 
budwom said:
We lead the world in in vitro recruiting.
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gam7 said:
Seems pretty safe to say that if Maine produces any high level basketball talent in the next decade, Duke will be starting from a strong recruiting position.
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Will the Alaska pipeline established by Trajan Langdon and Carlos Boozer pay off with the decisions of the Boozer boys in the 2025 class?
 
roywhite said:
Will the Alaska pipeline established by Trajan Langdon and Carlos Boozer pay off with the decisions of the Boozer boys in the 2025 class?
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I limited the forward-looking recruiting advantage in Maine to a decade to include kids who will be following Cooper's experience first-hand. Sadly, Boozer's last game at Duke was more than 20 years ago!
 
-jk said:
I didn’t think they were from Alaska.
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It depends on what you mean by "from". Both of them were born elsewhere (Langdon in Palo Alto and Boozer in Germany), but both of them were raised in Alaska and grew up there (Langdon in Anchorage and Boozer in Juneau). As someone born in Massachusetts but raised in Alaska from kindergarten through middle school, I definitely consider myself as "from" Alaska. It's been far more important than the trivial detail that I was born in the Northeast.
 
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