The Dallas Mavericks may not be winning too many games at the moment, but the good news is that Cooper Flagg appears to be hitting his stride. Flagg, despite the Mavericks' 116-114 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night, put up his best game thus far as a professional. He tallied a career-high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds, four assists, and two steals — leading his team in scoring in the process.
In so doing, the Mavericks rookie made a bit of history. As pointed out by Tim MacMahon of ESPN, Flagg tied LeBron James as the youngest rookie in NBA history, at 18 years and 324 days old, to score 25 points or more in a single game.
What makes this even more of a marvelous feat is that Flagg's thumb was sprained (according to him). The Mavericks rookie's thumb was heavily wrapped, and yet he delivered the best game of his brief NBA career to this point.
The sky is the limit for Flagg, and his early-season struggles with shooting the basketball should not be too concerning for his long-term prospects. Even James had his fair share of duds to begin his career. Within the first 10 games of James' career, he had nights where he shot 3-12 and 3-11 (twice) from the field.
Even then, James became arguably the greatest basketball player to ever grace planet Earth. While it would take a lot for Flagg to follow the footsteps of James, the early-season panic surrounding him is a bit overblown, as it should only be a matter of time before he hits his stride.
Mavericks have opportunity to do what LeBron James' Cavs weren't able to
James became so good, so quickly for the Cleveland Cavaliers that they weren't able to surround him with other young talents he could have grown alongside. But this Mavericks team is not good — not even close. Thus, this gives them a chance to perhaps compete for a top pick next year, what with the likes of Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, and Cameron Boozer set to enter the league.
Tanking might be the Mavericks' best recourse, as painful as it is to put up another dreadful year in the aftermath of the horrendous Luka Doncic trade.
