DeMarcus Cousins didn’t leave much room for doubt about what he saw from Cooper Flagg.
After Flagg kept rolling in preseason against the Houston Rockets in Macau, the former NBA big man hopped on Gil’s Arena and went hard with the praise, calling the Mavericks forward “the real deal” and saying, “He damn near like a mixture of [Kevin Durant], [LeBron James], and Giannis [Antetokounmpo] all in one player.”
That drew pushback from Iman Shumpert, but Cousins stayed planted on his take. He wasn’t arguing that Flagg is already on the level of Durant, James, or Antetokounmpo individually. His point was that the 19-year-old can pull pieces from all three.
“He’s also a 6’11”, 7-foot big getting downhill, Giannis,” Cousins said. “He’s also able to pass, shoot, dribble, playmake, Bron.
He’s also the tallest wing. He’s a tall wing.
He’s a tall wing scorer that’s able to put the ball on the floor and get to spots and shoot over his defenders, Kevin Durant. So, like I said, he’s a mixture of all three.”
Once Shumpert said he understood what Cousins was getting at, the conversation shifted into a different lane. Cousins made the point that Flagg’s size and style make him hard to process, and he boiled that down to one blunt line:
“It’s just white,” Cousins said. “That’s why it’s hard to see it.”
Shumpert pushed back, saying Flagg being white wasn’t the reason. He seemed to suggest he would react the same way if three great white players were mentioned together, but Cousins cut him off before that idea could settle.
“It ain’t no white boys doing that,” Cousins said. “… Not like that. Not doing everything like that.”
Shumpert then brought up Larry Bird, Toni Kukoc, and Chris Mullin, and Cousins gave those names their respect. Even so, he didn’t budge on his broader claim. In his view, those players still didn’t do everything Flagg can do, and he singled out Bird as the best of the group while saying he still couldn’t get to the rim the way Flagg can.
The production backs up the buzz. In preseason against Houston, Flagg averaged 16.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. Across the 2025-26 season, he put up 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game after Dallas took him with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
The expectations were enormous, and Flagg still cleared them. He won ROY and became the first rookie since Michael Jordan to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also drew a line from Flagg to LeBron James when talking about him as a rookie, and he believes the former Duke Blue Devil can become a top-five player in the NBA, even if the timing remains unclear.
This 2026-27 season may be too soon for that jump. It would be a surprise if Flagg is already standing alongside Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, and Anthony Edwards as a sophomore.
But the long view on Flagg is still obvious. The Mavericks were not supposed to land a generational talent this quickly after stunningly trading Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025. They did anyway.
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Powells value also goes beyond the routine preseason minutes. May has highlighted what he can offer in the pick-and-roll, an area that often helps define bench units early in the year, and the Mavericks still have two more preseason games to sort out how all of it fits. For a player whose role can sometimes be taken for granted, this stretch has made clear that his continued play could still shape where he stands by the time Dallas finalizes its roster. [Read more 🡒]