A template for growth? Can Flagg imitate Antetokounmpo?

For the Mavericks who hold the No. 1 pick, they may need to face a question when their record is hopeless:

Should they learn from the previous cases to develop Flagg?

From the beginning of the season, due to Irving's injury, the Mavericks made many attempts to let Flagg serve as the core ball-handler. Of course, he has the ability to play all positions on the court, and before the NBA, he was given different roles many times.

And Irving's injury just happened to make what was supposed to happen happen in advance.

Of course, even if Irving is healthy, coach Kidd will probably still insist on his point guard experiment. After all, from the perspective of the team's role, Irving is more like a shooting guard; and Kidd has always liked to train those skilled big players in the direction of tall point guards. He has already done similar experiments on Antetokounmpo before, which is his greatest confidence.

So, what can Antetokounmpo’s point guard experiment show? Can this predict Flagg's future?

First, let's take a look at Antetokounmpo's point guard experimentation process. From the beginning, his performance as a point guard with the ball was not very good. Judging from 2013, no one knew what level Antetokounmpo would grow to in the future; and as the youngest player in the current draft, there was even less information about him before the draft.

But thanks to his ball-handling ability and comprehensive offensive skills, many people are expecting him to at least grow into a ball-handling forward, and maybe even serve as a point guard. It was not until Kidd took over the head coaching position in 2014 that this advantage was completely amplified and even taken to the extreme level.

Looking back on Kidd’s four years in the Bucks, Antetokounmpo first played as a shooting guard in the first two years, and then began to serve as a point guard in the 2015-16 season. This transition season was also the most difficult year of Kidd’s tenure. The Bucks’ record declined all the way that season, and finally ended with 33 wins and 49 losses.

As for Antetokounmpo, his assist data that season was quite sluggish, averaging 4.3 assists per game and an assist rate of only 20%. After returning to the wing position in the second year, the total number of assists increased by nearly 90 times.

Judging from the case of Antetokounmpo, how much reference value can it have for Flagg’s development route?

In comparison, Flagg's assist data and assist efficiency this season are even lower than Antetokounmpo's 2015-16 season. Of course, this comparison is not accurate enough. After all, Flagg is still a rookie this year, and the 2015-16 season is already the third year of Antetokounmpo's career; and comparing the current Mavericks' lineup, it is much worse than the Bucks at the time.

Taken together, neither this year's Mavericks nor the 2015 Bucks are considered strong teams in the playoffs. The difference is that the Bucks' offense is better, and the current Mavericks' defense is better, but the net efficiency of both teams ranks at the lower level of the league.

But in the second year, after Antetokounmpo's ball-handling role was determined, the Bucks officially began to explode. After Antetokounmpo returned to the point forward role, the team's wins began to improve. Even after subsequent weight gain, it did not affect his ball-handling skills at all. All personal high-level statistics began to fully evolve after that season.

Judging from the case of Antetokounmpo and the current situation of the Mavericks, although the team's record is a mess, Flagg, who received a lot of ball rights, should not be too bad in his overall performance in his rookie season.

Even from the perspective of the star development route, for such a new player, his psychological quality is exactly the aspect that he should strengthen most. And since he has been in a high-pressure environment of losing since his rookie season, it may be a more suitable development route for him.

Of course, we cannot expect him to transform into a ball-handling core like Antetokounmpo in a few years, but Flagg is indeed a versatile enough ball-handling wing.

What can be expected is that judging from his current difficult point guard experience, as long as he gets through this and grows into a mature ball-controlling core, he will definitely bring huge potential rewards in the future.

But considering the current poor record of the Mavericks, whether coach Kidd can stay for a long time and whether he has the opportunity to witness the full development of Flagg is another question.