Cooper Flagg Details Rookie Struggles Amid Mavericks' 24-52 Season

Cooper Flagg, the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has acknowledged the mental challenges of his rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks, where individual brilliance has clashed with team-wide struggles during the 2025-26 campaign.

The 19-year-old forward from Newport, Maine, has averaged 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals and nearly one block per game across 64 appearances, positioning him as a frontrunner for Rookie of the Year honors alongside his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets. Flagg's performance marks him as just the fifth teenager in NBA history to average 20 points per game. Yet the Mavericks sit at 24-52, far from playoff contention, a stark contrast to Flagg's dominant runs in high school and at Duke, where his team lost only four games last year.

"It's been tough," Flagg said during a recent appearance on ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show. "Through high school, college, I mean, I only lost four games last year. So there have been times of the season where it's been really mentally taxing on me." He attributed the difficulties to a string of injuries and setbacks that derailed Dallas's plans. The team acquired Anthony Davis...