DHJ Quick Take
- Brotherhood First: Despite being the frontrunners for Rookie of the Year (ROTY), Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel do not discuss the award race, focusing instead on supporting each other’s transition to the NBA.
- Portland Statement: Flagg dominated the first half against the Trail Blazers, scoring 20 of his 24 points before halftime to snap a Mavericks losing streak.
- Statistical Breakdown: Flagg is currently averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists through 62 games, while Knueppel holds a games-played advantage (74 games) for a winning Hornets team.
PORTLAND, Oreg. — The question came after Cooper Flagg had already done most of his damage. Twenty-four points. Four steals. A first half that left the Dallas Mavericks‘ locker room watching a tight Duke game before tip-off and calling the night’s double outcome fate.
Flagg asked whether he and Kon Knueppel — former Blue Devils teammates, now the two names most often mentioned in the same breath when the Rookie of the Year conversation starts — talk about the race between them.
Flagg’s answer came without hesitation.
“We don’t talk about Rookie of the Year at all,” he said. “Not at all.”
No box score texts. No one-upmanship. The NBA’s youngest player, averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game across 62 games for Dallas, is in the middle of one of the more compelling rookie campaigns in recent memory — and apparently, he and his closest competition are spending their time on something else entirely.
A Scrambled Race for Rookie of the Year
Flagg entered the season as the heavy favorite for the award and played like it. Then a left midfoot sprain in February sidelined him for eight games and scrambled the race. The injury cost him momentum at the worst time, and by his own admission, the rhythm he had built before going down took time to return after he was cleared.
Knueppel, averaging 18.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists across 74 games for the Charlotte Hornets, holds the games-played advantage after Flagg missed time with an injury earlier this season. The gap in availability is one of the few arguments working against Dallas’s rookie.
The team record disparity looms over the race as well. Knueppel’s Hornets sit at 39-36, battling for a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference. The Mavericks, decimated by injuries all season, are 24-50 and long eliminated. For voters who weigh winning, that gap is real. For those who weigh the degree of difficulty, Flagg’s consistency on a roster that has rarely been whole tells its own story.
The two have played each other only once this season. Flagg missed the Mavericks’ sole road game in Charlotte in March, leaving their January 29 matchup at American Airlines Center as the lone head-to-head data point voters have. Flagg scored 49 points on 20-of-29 shooting with 10 rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes. Knueppel answered with 34 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including eight made threes, in 36 minutes. Dallas won by two. Both players left the floor having made their case.
None of that, Flagg made clear, has found its way into his conversations with Knueppel.
“I’ve definitely kept in touch with him throughout the whole year,” Flagg said. “That’s one of my brothers, and he’ll be one of my best friends the rest of my life. We’ve stayed connected and shared thoughts on things we see in our own individual games and try to help each other out as much as possible. That brotherhood and relationship is never going to die. It’s been great to have him as a friend going through a lot of the same things.”
Cooper Flagg Sets The Tone In Portland
Whatever Friday night was, it looked like a statement.
Flagg scored 20 of his 24 points in the first half, pulling Dallas to an advantage it never surrendered against a Portland Trail Blazers team that finished with 93 points — a season low for the Mavericks’ defense. He was not simply running hot from the perimeter. He was hunting.
“I thought we just did a good job getting spaced out there, and everybody was holding their space well,” Flagg said. “I thought it allowed me to kind of get loose a couple times and get some easy ones, and then settle in nicely.”
His teammates saw it from the opening tip. P.J. Washington said there was a clear directive among the veterans: get out of the way and let Flagg cook.
“Just him being aggressive, being downhill,” Washington told Dallas Hoops Journal. “He hit some floaters, some mids, and his shot was falling, so we just tried to ride him out the whole first half. He did a great job. Obviously, in the second half, he kind of slowed up, but we’re here to pick him up.”
Head coach Jason Kidd framed it in leadership terms.
“He’s our leader,” Kidd said. “For him to set the tone by scoring 20 in the first half, and then let others do it in the second, it just shows great leadership and poise. Being able to do it on both ends is big for a rookie.”
Marvin Bagley III, who finished with 26 points and 9 rebounds in his own standout performance, was direct about what Flagg’s first-half aggression did for Dallas structurally.
“He was aggressive. That’s what you like to see from a guy with his talent — making it hard for the defense to guard and forcing them to make decisions,” Bagley said. “He was able to get downhill, get some layups, some floaters, some steals. He was very impactful — not just in the first half, but the whole game. You love to see that.”
Finding His Rhythm Again
Flagg was candid about where his game stands after working back from an injury that interrupted one of the better stretches of his rookie year.
“I thought before I got hurt, I had an incredible rhythm, and everything was just feeling — I don’t want to say easy — but just a great rhythm,” Flagg said. “It’s great when you have rhythm out there. When I came back, it’s tough just getting your foot back in and getting your rhythm back. But I feel like lately I’ve started to get that rhythm back a little bit. My teammates have done a great job helping me, being supportive, and helping me in as many ways as possible out there.”
The Mavericks’ organization has made Flagg’s development a stated priority in the back half of what has been an injury-ravaged season.
Kidd said before Friday’s game that positioning Flagg properly in his rookie year is important to the franchise. Flagg said he feels that support.
“Yeah, a hundred percent,” Flagg said. “I’ve felt the support the whole year, and I think they’ve put me in incredible positions to succeed out there. I’ve felt all that love and support. I think that’s what it comes down to — just me going out there and being myself. I said that at the start of the year — if I go out there and be myself, I can kind of drown out the pressure and whatever other people are saying, and everything else will work itself out if I just play to my capabilities.”
Two Duke Wins, One Shared Night
Duke had just pulled off a close one before tip-off, and Bagley said the pregame scene had an edge to it.
“We were in the locker room watching it before the game,” Bagley said. “There are a lot of Duke haters in the locker room, so there was a lot of trash talk, especially when we were down a little bit in the second half. But we were able to pull it out and win, so happy for those guys. It gives us some ammo to go back at them and talk some trash.”
Flagg acknowledged the dual outcome with a grin.
“I guess so. Two Duke wins,” he said. “The Dallas Blue Devil was one as well.”
Donovan Clingan, another former Duke teammate, was on the other side of the floor Friday as Portland’s starting center. Bagley drew the assignment of pulling Clingan away from the paint — and it worked, to the tune of 11-of-14 shooting.
“Donovan is a big dude — he’s hard to combat down there,” Flagg said of the matchup. “But I thought Marv did a great job just playing with his size and athleticism to match that.”
As for the ROY race, Flagg is not losing sleep over it. The award, if it comes, will be a byproduct of the work. The friendship with Knueppel, he made clear, is something else entirely — something that has no offseason.
“That brotherhood and relationship,” Flagg said, “is never going to die.”
More Cooper Flagg Coverage on Dallas Hoops Journal
- Dallas Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd Calls Cooper Flagg The ‘Clear-Cut’ NBA Rookie Of The Year
- ‘I Can Learn A Lot From Him’: Cooper Flagg Reacts To Nikola Jokić’s Historic Game Against Dallas Mavericks
- ‘I’ve Learned A Lot’: Khris Middleton Is Helping Cooper Flagg Grow As A Professional Scorer
- Cooper Flagg Passes Kevin Durant And Luka Dončić With Eighth Career 30-Point Game
- ‘I Like Making The Right Play’: Cooper Flagg Shows Decision‑Making Beyond His Years As NBA’s Youngest Player
- Cooper Flagg Passes Luka Dončić For Second‑Most 15‑5‑5 Games By A Teenager In NBA History
