Duke’s freshman superstar, Cooper Flagg, already has heavy expectations set for him once he enters the NBA. He is widely considered the top prospect this season and is already drawing interesting comparisons from a few NBA executives. Some are going as far as to compare him to Jayson Tatum, Kawhi Leonard, and even NBA legend, Scottie Pippen. However, there are still some concerns from an offensive upside standpoint.
“Both of them at Duke presented really positively as guys that were going to have a couple of off-ramps to be super successful,” said a Western Conference executive about the Tatum comparison. “We’re seeing that with Flagg recently, he’s had poor shooting nights like against [Alabama in the Elite Eight], and still was super impactful [toward] winning. People questioned both of their shots, which turned out to be a silly concern, probably. They both have really good feel offensively in a way that’s just uncommon for their size and usage.”
“I say Scottie because he could have been a number guy, and was after MJ left [Chicago], but he became by far the best number two,” said an Eastern Conference general manager. “I think Cooper will be a hell of a number 10, but he might need a top 10 [player] running mate with him. He can obviously prove me wrong, but I don’t see him as a number one on a championship team in his career.”
