Some players head into the NBA draft combine looking to improve their positioning on draft day. With the right performance, they might be able to convince a team to select them higher.
For Cooper Flagg, there doesn’t seem to be much he can do to improve his draft stock at this point. It can’t get much higher when you’re already the consensus number one pick, after all.
But don’t tell Flagg that.
Everyone else may be acting like he is going to be the top pick in the late June draft, but Flagg won’t take that for granted, according to his longtime club basketball coach Andy Bedard.
“He’s just wired differently,” Bedard told the Bangor Daily News after Flagg declared for the NBA draft last week. “In his mind when he’s working out, he’s not thinking that he’s already assumed the number one pick. I think that there’s a lot of his game that can continue to improve, and I think he’s just focused on doing that.”
Matt MacKenzie, Flagg’s longtime player development coach, has been in Los Angeles, California, with the former Duke phenom helping him train ahead of the combine. The eight-day event starting May 11 features several drills and measurements that help NBA teams further assess draft prospects.
“He’s really just kind of ramping back up with his conditioning and focusing on building up his body,” MacKenzie said. “And you know part of that is in the weight room and on the strength and conditioning side, and then the other side is obviously on the court — just kind of really dialing in on, like I said, the conditioning and then you know parts of his game that I feel like you know he wants to try to continue to develop heading into the next chapter of his career.”
Flagg had been taking time to reflect on his future after Duke’s season ended in the Final Four, and he announced on Monday that he was excited to declare for the NBA draft and full of gratitude for what was “probably the best year of my life” at Duke.
MacKenzie said that it was a decision that Flagg “didn’t take lightly” but one that he had “been looking forward to for a long time.”
Bedard said last week that he planned to join Flagg in Los Angeles soon with son Kaden, who played alongside Flagg for years. Bedard acknowledged that the NBA will be a “different game” for the Newport, Maine, native.
“He’s going to attack it like it’s the next step in his journey, and it will be without a doubt a 100 percent maximum effort, and not assuming anything,” Bedard said.
Bedard said the adjustments Flagg will have to make at the next level include getting stronger, tightening up his handling and shooting more consistently.
“He’s gonna have to move his feet on defense quicker and not just rely on his length, because everybody’s his size at that position in the league,” Bedard said. “He’s gonna have to understand and quickly adapt to a 24-second shot clock. All the reads in the NBA game, it’s just different.”
Bedard said that, as the expected number one pick, Flagg will also have something of “a target on his back” with players competing for an NBA roster spot and trying to prove themselves.
As for the veterans already in the league?
“I think a lot of them publicly are like, ‘Yeah it’s great, he’s going to be a great player.’ But you know damn well that there’s a lot of them that want a piece of him when he comes in the league,” Bedard said.
Flagg has been dealing with that kind of attention from opponents for some time, Bedard pointed out, and said Flagg will need to continue to “be the killer that he is, and there’s no gliding.”
Despite those surrounding factors, Bedard said he hopes Flagg is able to reflect and realize that he has “earned every second of this” and appreciate his impact — especially in Maine.
“It’s always hurry up to the next day and get better and get better and get better,” Bedard said. “But you know for me I’m hoping he has a few moments and he knows how many people he’s impacted, how many dreams he’s created — for obviously the country but specifically for Maine kids — how proud we all are of him, and that he maybe takes a second and just enjoys this and reflects back on how special this is.”
