Jason Kidd isn’t losing any time with No. 1 decide Cooper Flagg.
The Dallas Mavericks head coach made it clear he needs the 18-year-old rookie working the ground instantly, beginning with the workforce’s Summer season League debut towards the Lakers on July 10.
“I’m enthusiastic about giving him the ball towards the Lakers and see what occurs,” Kidd stated at Flagg’s introductory press convention. “Let’s get it began, proper off the bat.”
Flagg, who starred at Duke final season and led the workforce in all 5 main statistical classes, averaged 19.2 factors, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per recreation. He additionally grew to become the youngest No. 1 decide since LeBron James in 2003.
Kidd sees Flagg’s management and mindset as a serious asset.
“Simply sitting right here listening to him, isn’t it unbelievable?” Kidd stated. “I imply, we’re speaking about an 18-year-old who has all the precise solutions and is speaking about figuring out after this. However whenever you speak about his reward, he’s a basketball participant. And he’s a winner.”
The Mavs’ coach doesn’t need Flagg boxed into one position, both.
“I need to put him on the level guard. I need to make him uncomfortable and see how he reacts, with the ability to run the present,” Kidd stated. “We need to push. And I believe he’s going to reply in a optimistic method. It’s all proper to fail. It’s all proper to show the ball over. We’ve talked about that.”
Kidd sees similarities between Flagg and a younger Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom he coached in Milwaukee.
“However he needed to come back again and have the ball,” Kidd stated of Antetokounmpo.
Flagg, in the meantime, is able to take in all the things.
“I’m simply trying ahead to being a sponge,” Flagg stated. “Simply getting down right here, I’m excited to simply be taught, soak all of it in and be taught from the fellows which can be older and have been by all of it earlier than.”
With veterans like Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Anthony Davis round him, Flagg enters the league in a uncommon place, a No. 1 decide becoming a member of a playoff-ready workforce.
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