Cooper Flagg Declares for NBA Draft To Wizards' Relief

Tanking, an old standby for teams deciding to reboot and redirect focus toward the future, comes with few guarantees. Fans of the Washington Wizards were feeling that precarity until now.

An organization putting itself in a position to lose while nearly every other team tries to win is a good way to ensure good odds at landing a top pick in an upcoming draft, but only so much about the process can be controlled. Teams get stuck with the short straw when the draft order looks nothing like the projected standings, and occasionally, are left out to dry when a top prospect decides to stay in school.

This was a realistic fear that fans of the Washington Wizards have had in the back of their collective minds over the past few months, with presumed top pick Cooper Flagg spending the last several weeks entertaining rumors that he'd stay for another year at Duke. Only today did he finally relent, officially declaring for the 2025 NBA Draft through Instagram.

Flagg joins a special tier of can't-miss projected number one overall draft picks we've had in recent years, joining the likes of Victor Wembanyama and Zion Williamson as the kind of prospects who eliminate the need to debate who'd be the first pick off the board several months before draft season.

Flagg, a fierce, 6'9 forward out of Newport, ME, reclassified to join the college circuit a year ahead of the rest of his high school classmates. What followed was one of the most impressive freshman seasons in the history of college basketball, as the ACC Rookie and Player of the Year made First Team All-American honors, along with winning National Freshman of the Year, National Player of the Year and the Julius Erving Award recognizing the NCAA's best small forward.

An 18-year old dropping 42-7-6 in a college game. We may never see this again at Duke @Cooper_Flagg pic.twitter.com/ga2zSzBJ4i
— Zion O. (@DukeNBA) April 21, 2025

A player entering his name into the draft pool is always up to them, though, and there was some genuine doubt that he'd sign up for another season in Durham. Duke, largely considered the favorite to win it all in March Madness, looked the part of a titan until it inexplicably collapsed to Houston in the Final Four, losing 70-67 despite entering the final 90 seconds with a seven-point lead.

His all-around game that incorporates instinctive, energetic defense, smart playmaking, rapidly-improving scoring, natural athleticism and a pure will to improve and win captured the eyes of every non-playoff team, who commenced an entertaining race to the bottom of the leaderboards.

The Wizards, chief among the NBA's tanking units, spent the entirety of the season with one of the worst winning percentages. After winning just 17 games, they've clinched even odds with the Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets for the best shot at landing the Blue Devil in the draft with a 14% chance.

Operation "Capture the Flagg" could have gone for naught, but no team is out of the forest quite yet. He's there for whoever can get him with that first overall pick, and everyone will have to wait another month while the league gets ready to announce the upcoming draft order on May 12.

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