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Dallas Mavericks star rookie Cooper Flagg has been off to a strong start in the preseason, making plays all over the floor. This has caused Mavericks fans to have another young player to be excited about, NBA fans to be in disbelief that the Mavs lucked out after trading Luka Doncic away to the Los Angeles Lakers, and NBA analysts to be in awe of a rookie.
One such person is a former NBA Champion, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, who compared Flagg to one of the greatest players of all time.
“He is the white version of LeBron James. When you talk about his IQ for the game, he has that. When you talk about his ability to be able to create, defend, do all those things, Cooper Flagg has that package, just minus a little bit of the athleticism,” Perkins said.
Kendrick Perkins on Cooper Flagg:
“He is the white version of LeBron James. When you talk about his IQ for the game, he has that…”
(via @ESPNNBA)pic.twitter.com/GlX6ywq0j6
— MFFL NATION (@NationMffl) October 14, 2025
Perkins isn’t the only former player to compare Flagg to LeBron James, as one of Perkins’ Celtics teammates, Brian Scalabrine, who helped open the basketball world to Cooper Flagg while he was in Maine, made a similar comparison before the draft.
“[Flagg]’s a supercomputer,” Scalabrine told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix. “Whatever you tell him, he’ll master in 24 hours. Just picture that for one second. Think about the trajectory of a player that you could tell something one day and he figures it out the next. Chris Paul, LeBron James, those are the guys with minds like that. He’s as smart as any player I’ve ever been around. His basketball IQ is off the charts.”
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Flagg has flashed nearly all of the brilliance that made him the first overall pick through the first three preseason games, averaging 10.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.7 SPG, and 1.0 BPG in about 20 MPG. Project those numbers out over 32-36 minutes, and you’re looking at a tremendous rookie season.
The one part that Flagg has really struggled with is three-point shooting. Teams have gone under on screens for almost every pick-and-roll situation, and Flagg hasn’t been scared to shoot it, but he’s only 4/11 from three to start. Luckily, he has Klay Thompson on the team as his vet, which is the best possible player to have for that weakness.
The Dallas Mavericks only have one preseason game remaining, which will be against the Lakers on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, and they start the regular season in a week against the San Antonio Spurs.
READ MORE: Anthony Davis thrives in new role in Mavs-Jazz preseason, but still raises concern
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