How good will Duke Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg be in the NBA?
It’s a question that has been on every basketball fan’s mind recently, and the buzz around Flagg will likely rise to extreme levels this weekend as his Blue Devils face off against Houston in the Final Four.
Flagg is the consensus No. 1 overall selection in June’s NBA draft, but scouts and executives alike have differed when it comes to finding NBA comparisons for the six-foot-nine, 18-year-old phenom.
Is Flagg going to be Jayson Tatum, or is he going to be Andrei Kirilenko?
The answer is, neither, of course, but people can’t resist raising comparisons. Another gigantic NBA name that Flagg has been connected to recently is former Chicago Bulls superstar Scottie Pippen.
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ESPN’s Jeremy Woo released a new piece on Flagg on Thursday and in it cited an Eastern Conference general manager comparing Flagg to Pippen.
“I say Scottie because he could have been a No. 1 guy, and was after MJ left [Chicago], but he became by far the best No. 2,” the anonymous general manager said.
“I think Cooper will be a hell of a No. 2, but he might need a top 10 [player] running mate with him. He can obviously prove me wrong, but I don’t see him as a No. 1 guy on a championship team in his career.”
To be clear, it’s not a knock on a player to say that he needs a top-10 running mate. After all, Pippen himself was that top 10 running mate for the GOAT, Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
Most NBA championship teams have had two stars (at least), and yes, some have had two top 10 guys (1990s Bulls, early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers, early 2010s Miami Heat, the Stephen Curry-Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors, etc.).
If Flagg projects to be something in the realm of Scottie Pippen, that also means he projects to be a top-50 player of all time or better.
In other words, the Pippen comp is high praise for the kid from Newport, Maine.
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