Flag: He is not Doncic s compensation, but the next storefront of the alliance

When the Mavericks unexpectedly won the No. 1 pick with the fourth lowest probability in history (1.8%) on May 13, the winning or losing of Doncic's big deal three months ago suddenly reversed:

The Lakers may not win, but the Mavericks definitely did not lose.

Just imagine that Doncic exchanged for Thick Brow, Christie, a 29-round pick, and sent Cleber's garbage contract away.

finally got the No. 1 pick this year, or to be precise, 18-year-old Cooper Flag. After the lottery draw, a lot of news about the Mavericks trading the No. 1 pick is rampant, including but not limited to:

dealing with the Bucks, getting Antetokounmpo, forming the "Supreme Twin Towers" with Davis,

dealing with the Mavericks and the Cavaliers, getting Mitchell,

dealing with the Suns, Devin Booker,

dealing with the Spurs, getting the second pick + three first rounds this year, etc.

But if you know Flag, or after reading this article, you will know that these are all random fabrications by the media to complete the KPI. The author can boldly say here:

Unless the Spurs give Wenban Yama, no bargaining chips in the league will make the Mavericks heartbroken, even Jokic, Alexander and Doncic.

Because he is Flag, 18-year-old Flag, a native white guy from the United States.

Let me first explain a simple truth here. Although the number one winner is good every year, it depends on the year. If there is a genius who stands out this year and can be seen at a glance, it is best if the strength is similar and no matter how good it is, the first choice will become a burden.

The most famous one is of course that in 2017, the Celtics took the initiative to trade the No. 1 pick and 76ers, and replaced the first round in 2019.

Anyway, the candidate has been determined (Tatum), so what if I don’t become the top scorer.

Since the 21st century, there have been only a few people who have truly set aside the generation gap with their competitors. LeBron James in 2003 was also excellent at the time, but no one would doubt who the Cavaliers would choose in the first round.

Derek Rose in 2008, the strongest competitor is also a college scoring machine Beasley, but the "Wind City Rose" is destined to bloom in Chicago. Kyrie Irving, who was

11, showed off offensive skills far beyond the NBA level on the college basketball court.

12-year-old Thick Brows won all the awards in NCAA in her freshman year. Andrew Wiggins, who was hailed as "another Tim Duncan" at the time, was considered to be the most talented No. 1 pick in LeBron in the future. Zion, in 2019, had become a national idol before he even entered the NBA, "the next James". The 23rd year of Wenban Yama made the league start a crazy "first-scoring battle" again after 2006 and 2002.

And this year, it is destined to be Cooper Flag.

Frager is destined to be an ordinary person, and at every stage of his life there is a strange BUFF of "Son of Chosen". He was born on December 21, 2006 in Newport, Maine, and the state has produced only one NBA player in history.

According to the NBA draft rules (must be over 19 years old), Flag is also one of the youngest rookies in this year.

If he is ten days later, he will have to participate in the 2026 draft.

His parents played college basketball when they were young, their mother Kelly was a star player at the University of Maine, and their father Ralph also played ncaa.

After getting married, the two gave birth to twins Hunter and Ryder in 2004, but the second son Ryder died soon after he gave birth to prematurely, and the eldest son Hunter also stayed in the intensive care unit for 107 days.

was hit by this, and the couple was about to stop and take care of their only son to grow up healthily.

If they did not change their attention later, there would be nothing to Cooper and his brother Ace.

In the end, God blessed, the old Flagg couple changed their minds and gave birth to twins in 2006 through five test tube fertilization efforts.

Cooper seemed to be born in this barren land by God.

He and his twin brother are born bigger than their peers, and their mother Kelly is also an absolute "tiger mom".

I challenged the fourth grade since the second grade, and started participating in the sixth grade competition in the fourth grade, using this "jump" method to match opponents who can truly hone the two brothers.

And Cooper, who is more talented, can already complete a dunk at the age of 13.

Is this experience very similar to the childhood basketball story of seniors LeBron James and Luca Doncic?

Later, Flag became more and more famous. In order to help him polish his level in a better environment, his family moved to Florida and joined the Montverde Academy, a well-known basketball preparatory school in the United States. Receive the top basketball training and compete with the best young people of the same age.

How great is this school?

Let's put it this way, just remember that D'Angelo Russell, 2015 second-year No. 1 pick Ben Simmons, 2016 first-year No. 1 pick Cunningham, and 4th-ranked Scotty Barnes are all from this.

After coming to Florida in 2022, Flag's progress can be described as rapid. He has reached the top two in the national high school rankings. His only competitor is Cameron Boozer, the son of NBA All-Star forward Carlos Boozer..

In the 222nd U17 Men's Basketball World Cup, Flag attracted the attention of the whole world with his averaged 9.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.9 blocks and 2.7 steals.

, especially in the final, scoring 10 points, 17 rebounds, 8 steals and 4 blocks, which made the Spanish team, the strongest European team of the same age. At that time, the FIBA ​​media lamented:

15-year-old Flagg's performance is no longer in this age group. In 2023, Flag made another amazing move: He decided to skip his senior year and go directly to his senior year so that he can participate in the draft in 2025.

In his last year of high school in the 23-24 season, he even performed "Thanos" performance that shocked the whole country.

Average of 16.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game may not show his amazingness, but the reason is that four of them in the team except him are all five-star high school students in the United States. The team won 34 games throughout the season, with a net victory of 21 points per game. All five were selected for the best high school student in the United States, and Flag is the unquestionable big brother.

23-24 season ended, he won the Naismith Best Player, Gatorade's All-American Player, and Mr. Basketball, and then announced his joining the prestigious basketball school Duke University.

At this time, it was more like Flag that added glory to Duke, rather than Duke choosing this "Son of America".

By 2024, the whole world knows that the United States has such a talented boy.

Not only did he participate in the US men's basketball team training team as a high school student (who had not yet entered Duke at the time), but he also scored 17 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the competition with big brothers such as James, Curry, and Thomas Brow.

not only can play back and forth against James, but also hit a three-pointer against Davis' defensive hit in the fourth quarter, and also hit the back of the newly won Holiday, who had just won the championship, and also rode Adebayo to complete the make-up dunk, helping the sparring team to overtake 69-68 in the fourth quarter.

Although they lost one point in the end, Flag completely conquered the NBA management and his future opponents with this informal but heavy enough game.

Durant, who was watching the game on the sidelines, said:

He is great, only 17 years old, but he acts like a veteran who has played for many years.

24-25 In Duke's NCAA freshman season, Flag did not show that many five-star high school students were not adapting to the local environment from high school basketball games to college. Not only did he average 21.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, and the efficiency of the "quasi-180 Club" with 54% shooting percentage, 46% three-point shooting percentage and 87% free throw shooting percentage, he led Duke to a dominant record of 15 wins and 1 loss, but he also led the team to the semi-finals of the NCAA Championship.

In the semi-finals that were finally reversed by Houston University, although he fouled the opponent in the last moment and missed the final score, his performance of 27 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks still steadily matched his identity as the "No. 1 pick".

He no longer needs to prove anything in college.

We can see that Flag has faced challenges from all ages almost in the form of "jumping grades", and he has always proved that he is always an outstanding and outstanding existence.

More importantly, his excellence is not reflected in the outrageous physical fitness crushing, but in achieving all-round suppression through the comprehensive growth of his basketball skills step by step.

He is already a mature enough combat power, not inferior to Banchero, Zion, Rose, Anthony and others in college.

What's even more terrifying is that you can still feel that he still has huge room for growth and progress, and does not have the bad habits of players who have been successful for many years.

This comes from the teachings of his family and the growth of science. Their whole family is a fan of the Celtics and Larry Bird in the 1980s.

The Mavericks will never give up this outstanding young man who is already mature enough to quickly shoulder the heavy burden of offense and defense of the team.

He is very much like LeBron James who just entered the league.

Having a smart enough sense of stadium and game habits, he is not only good at using his body advantages (2.03 meters tall, 2.13 meters wingspan, and wide shoulders at the inside level) to win many easy offensive opportunities, but also able to solve problems on the court with solid skills.

At the same time, he does not stick to the ball. His good game habits since childhood have made him often play the role of the team's main ball holder in college games, which is very in line with the future development direction in the NBA.

He has elite defense and very solid shooting skills, which can ensure that he can appear on the court and contribute even in his rookie season.

This is just a prediction of his rookie season, and his cap will be the sea of ​​stars in the future.

This should be the only long article I have written about a non-Lakes rookie after Wenban Yama. Because I believe this white boy from Maine will be destined to be one of the future NBA facades and even one of the flags.

He will replace Doncic to support the banner of the future Mavericks and become another outstanding star in the league.

I dare not say he is "the next Larry Bird", after all, this is almost a curse for white players.

But to be honest, Flag is really outstanding, and I hope that fans next season will pay more attention to this young man.