Cooper Flagg’s frame is still growing, and the Mavericks are hoping the rest of his game keeps growing with it.
Flagg said at Media Day on Friday that he has been remeasured at 6-foot-10 barefoot, a jump from the 6-foot-9 listing Dallas used last season. That also stands out against the 2025 NBA scouting combine, where he measured 6-foot-7 ¾ barefoot.
“I’m 6-foot-10, with no shoes,” Flagg said at Media Day on Friday. “I was like 6-foot-9 last year so definitely taller. With no shoes, maybe I’m 6-foot-11”
The size update has naturally invited big-name comparisons. The growth curve looks a little like Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was measured at 6-foot-8½ before the 2013 NBA draft and then reached 6-foot-11 by the end of his rookie year after growing 2½ inches. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also put Flagg in another elite lane, comparing his rookie season to LeBron James.
“In all honesty, I feel like there’s not enough hype around Cooper Flagg,” Windhorst said on ESPN. “I don’t think people realized how breathtaking Cooper Flagg’s performance was last season. He absolutely reminded me on an almost nightly basis of LeBron as a rookie.”
The Antetokounmpo comparison gets even more interesting when you look at the path he took. His big leap came in his age-22 season, when he put up 22.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game in his fourth year with Milwaukee. That was the season he first received an MVP vote, made All-NBA and earned All-Defensive honors.
Flagg may not have to wait that long.
Antetokounmpo’s breakout still came while he was a rough jump shooter, hitting just 32.3% of his jumpers. But he was a wrecking ball at the rim, making 68.2% of those shots and producing 1.36 points per shot, which ranked in the 88th percentile according to Synergy. He averaged about 11.18 rim attempts per 100 possessions that season.
Flagg already showed plenty of rim pressure as a rookie. He averaged 6.76 rim attempts per 100 possessions and shot 65.9% at the basket, while also posting a plus-149 in drive points added. That was fueled by 17.9 drives per 75 possessions, the most by a rookie since 2017, according to Basketball University on X.
“I’m amazed. When you look at how productive he is as a 19-year-old in this league with the the weight that was put on him last year, as far as seeing different defenses of being a focal point,” Mavericks coach Dusty May said on Media Day.
“We’re excited to help him on his journey and grow at whatever rate, whatever rate he grows at, he puts in the work. He’s very intelligent. He’s a great teammate, and all those things typically lead towards a rapid ascension and being one of the best players.”
Dallas has also built some help around him. The Mavericks added Zaccharie Risacher, Tarik Biberovic and Santi Aldama for spacing, kept Max Christie, and are expecting a healthy Kyrie Irving for opening night.
May said at the team’s practice facility that the goal is to help Flagg get cleaner paths to the rim in his second season.
“If we surround him with better shooting and better spacing and we’re connected as a group where we’re playing off of each other,” May said. “I think it will organically happen and then obviously ATOs, he’ll have opportunities to get in space and drive space and attack.”
That idea lines up with what Christie sees from the roster.
“We’re all great jump shooters,” Mavericks guard Max Christie said. “We all can really shoot the ball.
John (Poulakidas is) a great shooter. Tarik’s a great shooter.
I’m a great shooter. Everybody on this team has worked on it.”
Defensively, the Antetokounmpo bar is obviously sky-high. Giannis became one of the great help defenders in the game, using his length to erase passing lanes and shots at the rim, and that early impact helped him pile up five All-Defensive selections and win Defensive Player of the Year in 2019-20.
Flagg’s ceiling on that end may not be quite that extreme, but his rookie year showed real playmaking potential. He ranked in the 90th percentile in block rate, defended 8.9 rim field-goal attempts per 100 possessions and held opponents 6% below their expected shooting percentage at the rim, according to Basketball University. He finished the season averaging 0.9 blocks, 1.2 steals and 5.4 defensive rebounds per game.
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