Cooper Flagg regularly won games in high school and in college, but he’s not having the same experience since he turned pro.
With the Dallas Mavericks, wins have come few and far between in the 2025-26 NBA season despite Flagg’s best efforts. The Mavs simply are far from becoming a legitimate playoff contender, with the former Duke Blue Devils star left to ride the rough waves in his first season in the Association.
“Obviously, it’s been tough. Like you said, you know, 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, you know, really mentally taxing on me,” Flagg said in a recent appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Flagg continued to candidly talk about his disappointment over how the season has gone for the Mavericks, but he knows that it’s all part of his learning curve as a pro.
“Just not having success that I would’ve hoped for, and obviously, we’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of unfortunate things happen throughout the year. It’s obviously not been ideal. I’ve had growth along the way, and I’ve had to get better and learn on the fly, but definitely not the start I would’ve looked for. Hopefully, eventually I’ll be able to look back on it and know that I was able to learn a lot from it.”
Flagg arrived in Dallas as the No. 1 overall pick at the 2025 NBA Draft, just months after the Mavericks pulled off the shocking Luka Doncic trade.
Anthony Davis, the centerpiece of the trade package from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Doncic, struggled to stay healthy with Dallas, which later sent him to the Washington Wizards. Meanwhile, the Mavericks are missing Kyrie Irving for an entire season because of an injury, while constantly dealing with a revolving door of hurt bodies all season long.
But everything is still in front of Flagg, who is living up to the immense hype he carried with him going into the NBA.
So far this season, he is averaging 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
