Fantasy Sports

Mavs Shockingly Shut Down Cooper Flagg, Ruin the NBA Summer League, Annoy Fantasy Players

Alan Goldsher|
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg does Cooper Flagg things in his truncated Summer League session.
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg does Cooper Flagg things in his truncated Summer League session. | Candice Ward-Imagn Images

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Regardless of the sport, pre-season games are often, in a word, dull.

NBA-wise, you’ve got hungry undrafted free agents fighting for roster positions, thus you’ll see a whole lot of one-on-one ball, ill-thought-out shots from distance, and a bunch of questionable defense.

Yet serious fans and fantasy nerds tune in because we want to scout, to get a gander at how the higher draftees might look on the court and in the box score come Opening Night.

We’re talking to you, NBA Summer League

Here in 2025, we fans and nerds were more excited about the Summer League than usual, as we'd be allowed the opportunity to see if former Dookie Cooper Flagg is as generational as some believe.

But then the Dallas Mavericks went and screwed everything up.

Two and Done

In his first game as an NBA player, 2025's top draft pick was hit and miss, managing 10 points on dreadful 5-of-21 shooting to go with six boards, four assists, and three steals in a team-high 32 minutes. His energy was, as usual, off the charts, but at times, he looked out of control and selfish, delivering a Jimi Hendrix solo when he should’ve been playing some James Hetfield rhythm guitar.

Flagg himself was cheesed off about his performance, calling it, “…one of the worst games of my life.”

In his follow-up, Flagg looked solid—not generational, just solid—racking up 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting as well as four boards and a dime. Concerningly, he clanked five of his 13 free throw attempts, and managed one steal and zero blocks.

The Dallas Mavericks franchise must’ve been happy with what they saw from the overwhelming favorite for Rookie of the Year, shutting him down for the rest of the Summer League.

Veteran NBA scribe Marc Stein first reported the news, saying, “I have confirmed that this was Cooper Flagg’s last appearance in the Summer League. He is not scheduled to play Monday.”

It goes without saying that those aforementioned serious fans and fantasy nerds are pissed.

Plant the Flagg? Maybe…

As I wrote back in June, I’m very much on the fence about Flagg’s fantasy value, and the brief glimpses we saw here in July haven’t moved any needles.

In a nutshell, the fence and I are still on the same page.

Based on the small sample size, Flagg will bolster your scoring category—although, considering he’ll be sharing the court with ball hogs Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, he won’t see a huge volume of attempts, so that particular number will take a ding.

Flagg's shooting from both the field and the stripe was far from impressive; we’re talking 35 FG% and 64 FT%. On the plus side, he compiled three steals in his first game, which tells me that of his wide range of comps, he’ll be statistically closer to Andrei Kirilenko than Scottie Pippen.

But thanks to the no-fun Dallas Mavericks front office, that’s as much information as we’ll get until training camp.

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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.

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