Cooper Flagg scores 31 points vs. San Antonio Spurs, 07\/12\/2025<\/p>\n
Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg has already turned heads in his first two NBA 2K26 Summer League<\/a> games. The main takeaways from his early showings offer a glimpse into his potential and could help shape expectations for his fantasy basketball value in the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n First, the numbers\u2026<\/p>\n 31.4 MPG Las Vegas highlights<\/p>\n Flagg was much better in his second performance (vs. Spurs) than his first (vs. Lakers). Against the Lakers, he took too many tough, contested mid-range jumpers. He drove harder to the basket in the second game, fueling a better and more efficient outcome. The constant in both games was that he looked the most comfortable in transition, often starting or ending a fast break. His combination of size and athleticism is tough for opposing players to deal with when Flagg gets a head of steam.<\/p>\n Although teammate Ryan Nembhard<\/a> handled traditional point guard duties, Flagg was asked to create plenty in the halfcourt. More often that resulted in shots for himself or dish-out passes rather than assists. It\u2019s possible, if not likely, he averages more assists during the season. He was a great passer in Duke\u2019s system. Summer League can be hit or miss when it comes to structure. There should be more opportunities for him to show off his passing IQ and vision when working through Dallas\u2019 playbook and sets. The fact he committed only 1.5 turnovers in the Summer League environment with his usage is impressive. However, against stronger, quicker and headier NBA defenders \u2014 there may be some growing pains as a ball handler.<\/p>\n Offense and defense<\/p>\n Flagg was a 39% 3-point shooter in college but struggled in Summer League. That said, he wasn\u2019t shy, essentially doubling his volume from Duke. Flagg will need to space for the Mavericks but probably won\u2019t be asked to shoot seven 3s per game. The ones he does shoot will more likely be open, catch-and-shoot 3-pointers rather than pull-ups. There are scouts who aren\u2019t in love with his shot mechanics, so there could still be some hot-and-cold stretches during the year.<\/p>\n Defensively, Flagg\u2019s instincts and athleticism were on display. He didn\u2019t rack up gaudy steals and blocks numbers but was usually in position to help and didn\u2019t shy away from sticking his hand in to poke the ball away from a driver. He also contested shots without fouling. At the NBA level, it may be tough for him to rack up big block numbers while presumably sharing the court with Anthony Davis<\/a> and one of Dereck Lively II<\/a> or Daniel Gafford<\/a>. The rebounding numbers also weren\u2019t gaudy, and I won\u2019t expect them to be in the aforementioned environment. Flagg may be asked more to leak out in transition than to crash the glass.<\/p>\n 2025-26 fantasy outlook<\/p>\n What is Flagg\u2019s fantasy basketball potential as a rookie? I don\u2019t think his two Summer League performances changed anyone\u2019s mind. People who love his instincts and athleticism saw that. People who thought he\u2019d have growing pains in the halfcourt saw that. In the context of the Mavs, Flagg has the upside to be a co-second option with D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a> (filling in for Kyrie Irving<\/a>), behind Anthony Davis \u2014 whether he immediately actualizes that is unclear. But it won\u2019t be easy for Flagg to rack up rebounds or blocks with Dallas\u2019 big lineup, and he\u2019ll need to establish himself as a perimeter shooting threat \u2014 both on and off the ball \u2014 to maximize his effectiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg scores 31 points vs. San Antonio Spurs, 07\/12\/2025 Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg has already turned heads…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,10726,99],"class_list":["post-10707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-nba-fantasy-cooper-flagg-breakdown","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n20.5 PPG, 1.5 3PM, 4.0 FTM on 36 FG%, 21 3P%, 57 FT%
\n5.0 RPG (all DRB)
\n2.5 APG
\n1.5 STL
\n1.0 BLK
\n1.5 TOV<\/p>\n