Cooper Flagg’s Send Message To Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach After Second Summer League Game Showed A World Of Difference
After his first summer league game was, by his own admission, well below his own standards, former Duke star Cooper Flagg had a somewhat better second outing against the San Antonio Spurs. In 31 minutes, he had:
31 points
four rebounds
one assist
one block
shot 10/20 overall
3/8 from behind the line
and hit 8/13 from the line
As noted by several people, Spurs rookie Carter Bryant defended him well, but he couldn’t stop him either – and keep in mind that Flagg is, by his own admission, not in game shape. Also, keep in mind Duke and Arizona played twice last year and Flagg ripped Bryant’s team for 24 the first time and 30 the second.
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What we saw in Game II was his pride and competitiveness. Flagg was not going to settle for something well beneath his standards.
That said, all players have weaknesses and former NBA player Tim Legler thinks he’s spotted a problem with Flagg’s shot:
“I could see it from behind him as soon as it came off from his hands you could see that it was not going in because the flight was different.
“So to me, is that an easy thing to fix? You have to stop turning your wrist. To be honest with you, I don’t know.
“He’s only 18 years old, but they’ve got to see the same things that I’m seeing and it’s nit picking the number one pick and a guy that you know might be a Hall of Famer, he might be an MVP one day.
“But that is something for me that he absolutely needs to get hold of because he’s gonna be a high 20s low 30s three-point shooter if he doesn’t.”
He knows basketball far better than we ever will, but we have seen in Flagg immense hard work. Our guess is he figures it out. And he has Klay Thompson on the team to help him, as Legler points out.
Also worth mentioning: one of the great shot doctors in the game is former Duke guard Chip Engelland, currently an assistant with OKC.
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