Cooper Flagg Impresses On Another Level

Keep in mind that he should be a rising senior in high school.

Cooper Flagg’s star turn with the Select Team, where he went toe to toe with some of the NBA’s biggest stars, certainly opened some eyes. The hype train, as we’ve said several times recently, is only just now getting started. It’s going to get more intense.

One of the things we’ve noticed about Flagg is that while he occasionally talks some trash on the court, for the most part, he’s very quiet and, in a very New Englandy sort of a way, taciturn. When he was on his official visit, we were a little worried because he really didn’t smile much. Was he having fun? Was he underwhelmed? There was no clue at all.

So it was really interesting to see this article and not only to find him talking a good bit to CBS’s Isaac Trotter, but to say some things that you don’t necessarily expect a 17-year-old to say. First, how many freshmen talk about defense the way he does here? That’s unusual.

But so is this:

“Looking back at grassroots basketball and AAU, in hindsight, whether it’s coaches or the entire ecosystem, I wish we would’ve focused a lot more on skill work. You watch the European influence and how much better the European game has gotten, they don’t give a shit about rankings. They care about getting better. They care about skill work. They play two games a week. We were playing three games on Thursday, three games on Friday, four games on Saturday and sometimes five games on Sunday. That’s too much. I’m not going to say I felt like I left some things on the table in my career, but hindsight you think is 20/20. I wish the skill work and being hungrier to have more games would’ve been paramount. It’s like going to a good vacation. You leave wanting more. I wish that was what we had.”

Now that’s interesting.

Flagg’s comment is from a guy who clearly loves the game and who wants to, as much as possible, honor and master it.

This is getting way ahead of things but it’s the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from a coach more than an emerging talent. Watching him figure this stuff out is going to be fascinating.