Cooper Flagg is already drawing rave reviews with the NBA preseason under way.
The Dallas Mavericks started the No. 1 overall draft pick out of Duke at point guard in a preseason game Monday night, and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins says the 18-year-old Flagg is like a young LeBron James at this stage of his career.
“I said it on draft night,” Perkins said Tuesday on “NBA Today.” “He is the white version of LeBron James, when you talk about his IQ for the game, he has that. When you talk about his ability to be able to create, defend, do all those things, Cooper Flagg has that package, just minus a little bit of athleticism less than LeBron.
“But when it comes down to him and [Anthony Davis] this preseason, I love the two-man game, the action that I’ve been seeing out of both of those guys. And I wouldn’t be surprised come opening night that the ball is going to be in his hands, he’s running that point forward position.”
In the Mavericks’ 114-101 victory over former Rutgers star Ace Bailey and the Utah Jazz, the 6-foot-9 Flagg tallied 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting with seven rebounds, two steals, two blocks and one assist in 21 minutes.
“You know what? He’s better with the ball than LeBron was in his first year in the league,” said ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who covered LeBron in high school. “Now, LeBron was a more talented offensive player, but LeBron played point guard as a rookie, and frankly, it was a disaster. It was a disaster. He was leading the league in turnovers, even he would admit this.”
With Flagg at the point (at least until Kyrie Irving returns from ACL surgery), it allows Jason Kidd’s team to have a jumbo lineup that will cause problems for a lot of teams. He started alongside Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively.
“If you look at what they can play, really big in Dallas, and you look at what Houston can do when they might play Amen Thompson at point guard this year, and they can put Jabari Smith at three,” Windhorst said. “These two teams, if they play each other, talk about bigger in Texas. You could see nobody on the court under 6-7, 6-8. That’s modern NBA basketball.”
Story by Adam Zagoria, NJ.com
