Cooper Flagg has Unique Opportunity to Join NBA's Greatest Legends

Many expected Cooper Flagg to embark on a highly successful rookie campaign, but few expected him to take the league by storm quite like he has.

After a relatively slower start, the 6-foot-8 forward has been nothing short of a star for the Dallas Mavericks, bringing his season averages to 19.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game on 56.4 TS% through 33 contests.

While his defensive floor was always high, the former Duke Blue Devil's self-creation ability has shown to be most impressive. Flagg is currently thriving in the intermediate areas of the floor, using a refined functional handle to navigate traffic and find his spots in the short mid-range.

His touch on floaters and pull-ups has turned him into a potent off-the-dribble threat who can punish defenders with his mix of size and scoring counters.

Defensively, Flagg has been a driving force behind Dallas' top-ten unit. His defensive impact is most evident in the team's ability to limit high-quality looks, as Dallas currently boasts the third best defense in the league by opponent effective field goal percentage. Flagg’s processing speed allows him to headline a system of disruptive rotations, where he often functions as both an on-ball stopper and a secondary rim protector.

By being able to leverage both perimeter speed and vertical rim protection abilities in combination with his impressive processing, Flagg's defensive value ensures that his two-way impact already makes him a star in the NBA. This two-way value is now providing a unique opportunity for the Rookie of the Year frontrunner.

The 65-Game Threshold Paves an All-NBA Path for Flagg

Since the ABA-NBA merger, only four players have earned an All-NBA nod in their rookie season. Four of the league's greatest-ever players in Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, David Robinson, and Tim Duncan are the only ones to pull off the feat, with Duncan being the most recent in 1998. For the record, all four went on to win at least one MVP over their career, with all but Robinson earning multiple.

This accomplishment is a historic rarity because the league hierarchy is usually too rigid for a rookie to crack the top fifteen. However, the 2025-26 season has created a unique front-court vacuum. The 65-game eligibility rule and a significant wave of injuries have sidelined many of the league's very best players, leaving the door wide open for a wave of new front-court players to enter the All-NBA ranks.

With Jayson Tatum and Nikola Jokic facing long injury recoveries, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama already missing significant chunks of the season, the pool of eligible All-NBA candidates is rapidly shrinking due to the 65-game rule. Beyond these four front-court stars, many other All-NBA regulars also may be ineligible for the honors, from Tyrese Haliburton to LeBron James to Jalen Williams.

This creates a massive opportunity for Flagg. If he can stay healthy and continue to rapidly progress on both ends of the ball, his two-way impact could propel him to break the near-30-year drought of rookies earning All-NBA honors. Over the course of the season, watch for Flagg's ability to elevate his game and potentiall join some of the league's most revered legends in history.