What was Flagg s level of play in his debut?

Last summer, Flagg trained with the "Dream Team" and won the MVP of the sparring team.

Many NBA players praised him a year ago: The game is very mature.

Now, we see and witness this with our own eyes on the field.

Flagg's game is indeed very mature - even though he is only 18 years old as a jumper, almost the same age as James when he entered the high school draft.

Defensive end

Rookies tend to be immature on the defensive end, but Flagg did a very good job.

There are innate factors: he has an excellent and balanced body shape, and has a strong natural defensive ability. He can defend guards and power forwards, and even defend thick eyebrows in training.

What is particularly outstanding is that his jumping ability is very good, his bounce speed is very fast, and his secondary jumping ability is also very strong, which is much better than ordinary people. He can be regarded as very outstanding among top talents. In high school, he often blocked double figures, and in college he averaged 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, both of which were very good.

What is even more valuable is the acquired factor: his defensive awareness, judgment, and movement details are all perfect, and Duke taught him very well.

For example, in the following round, when defending alone, you adjust the front and back position of your steps in a timely manner, pay attention to maintaining your center of gravity when defending, switch defenses very quickly, and take off early to block the attack time, which very accurately caused the opponent's 24-second violation:

For example, in the following round, the close-out step was very stable, the sense of position when changing defense in the corner was just right, and he paid attention to reaching out to intercept, and the final rebound was also very stable:

What he did can almost be described as "perfect".

Overall, his defensive style is not as aggressive and destructive as Leonard or Edwards. It is more like James and Big Eyebrow, who use perfect movements to carefully control and compress the opponent's breathing space. He is not prone to fouling, which means it is easy to gain an advantage in free throws - he and Big Eyebrow played half a game with a total of 3 blocks and 0 fouls.

Offensive end:

On the offensive end, his comprehensive skill set is well known, and his ability to read the offense is particularly amazing.

Hitting the basket is his specialty, and his aerial dodge under confrontation shows his true qualities as a superstar. According to a scouting report, Flagg particularly likes difficult finishing moves that can be featured on highlights.

The three-point performance can be described as a surprise. He is not good at shooting, but he shot confidently and decisively in his debut, and the effect was very good. All two regular shots went in.

The most eye-catching and impressive thing is his passing ability.

His reactions are quick, his techniques are accurate, and his ability to read defenses is very good.

Of course, he is not a genuine playmaker, and it is hard to say whether he can become a real playmaker, but his passing sense and ability are beyond doubt, and he will become an excellent passing player.

And in the current Mavericks formation, Irving and Russell are neither typical old-school pass-first point guards nor new-school ball-handling cores that integrate offense and passing. With their combined vision, awareness and skills, Flagg may actually be the best passer in the current Mavericks formation.

It makes sense for Kidd to arrange for Flagg to be the point forward early.

Shortcomings:

As for his biggest shortcoming, it is the first element that many people regard as the core of the team: the lack of main attack ability.

This is mainly reflected in three aspects.

1. His physical talent is not top-notch

His physical talent is good, but compared to the monsters who have been the top picks in the league in the past, it is still a little bit inferior.

He doesn't have enough strength to stand up to others, which is not a big problem. Rookies always lack strength. The bigger problem is that his burst speed is not fast enough, especially the start speed of the first step is not fast enough.

He is also a forward monster. At that time, James could compete with Iverson, Tracy McGrady and others for the fastest first step in the world. Flagg was a bit reluctant compared to the same position in the league, let alone compared with guards.

Burst speed is an absolute talent.

2. The dribbling skills are relatively simple.

Flagg is a solid dribbler and can maintain dribbling under high-intensity confrontation, but his dribbling level - or "ball feel" - is not top-notch.

In addition, as mentioned above, the startup speed is not fast enough, which will cause him to be unable to pass people alone, and he can only rely on the opponent and move in close.

The leader in this area is Kawhi Leonard, but he relies on his opponent, presses in with strength, and after entering the shooting spot, squeezes the opponent away and shoots above his head. Flagg can work in this direction.

However, at present, he still lacks strength and can hardly get past others.

3, the shooting stability needs to be verified

Flagg made 2 of 3 three-pointers in his debut, and his shooting rate was very good; in college, he shot 38.5% from three-pointers, which was also very good.

However, he is not an excellent pitcher. Before college, Flagg's shooting performance was not very good. In many small competitions, he only shot less than 30% of the three-pointers, and his shooting posture was not stable enough. In college, he took 27% of the three-pointers, which is a bit low in this era.

His free throw percentage in college is 84%, which often indicates that he can become a good shooter, but he may be questionable as a main attacker.

Based on the above three points, we can see that Flagg is versatile enough, but currently lacks a reliable enough main attack method. Therefore, many scout reports write: Flagg lacks the explosive ability to score 50+ points in a single game.

Considering that his speed talent and dribbling skills are relatively limited, it is difficult to achieve qualitative changes through acquired training. He may need to use more organizational connections and powerful singles and mid-range shots to realize his offensive influence-closer to the "Park James" who won the championship in his twilight years..

Cooper Flagg, the number one pick who skipped a grade and was still elected,

This is enough to show how good he is.

He is versatile enough and has amazing maturity.

He will surely be able to realize his influence on the court soon.

He will quickly make people forget that he is only 18 years old.

He still has shortcomings, but there is no need to worry,

will definitely get better as he grows up.

After all, he was only 18 years old.