Will Cooper Flagg play with the Mavs in the Las Vegas Summer League?

Not many young players have gained the same level of popularity as quickly as Cooper Flagg. The 6-foot-8 standout was selected as the No. 1 Draft pick in the recent event and made the move to the pro level to play at the Dallas Mavericks, alongside cemented stars such as Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving.

Fans have been eagerly waiting for Flagg to make his debut, with Mavs summer league coach Josh Broghamer asked that very question after practice on Tuesday.

“We’ll take it day by day,” he responded. “Once we get out to Vegas, (we’ll) kind of figure out the schedule and see how he does starting with the Lakers and then kind of go from there.”

As such, the youngster is expected to debut on Thursday in a highly anticipated matchup against a Los Angeles Lakers side that contains Bronny James, another highly promising young player (8 p.m. ET). However, after that, it’s unclear whether or not he will be given time to adapt or if he will be plunged further into the deep end of Dallas basketball.

Flagg, as mentioned, is a hugely promising player. He won the award for the AP national college player of the year at Duke, after a season in which he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks on 38.5% shooting from 3-point range.

On the huge challenge of adapting his on-ball game to to the pro level to grow as a player, Flagg admitted that he was “looking forward to it,” adding that “I think (Duke) coach (Jon) Scheyer trusted me a lot last year, and I handled it a lot. I didn’t bring it up a ton, but in the half-court, I handled it a lot and set up a lot of different actions. I think it is something that I can do at a high level, so I’m excited to experiment and do some different things.”

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“I’m excited,” Flagg repeated, beaming, when asked by reporters to examine his adaptation. “I’ve been in the gym with the guys. (I’ve) got to know a bunch of them, so I’m just excited to get out there, get back on the court and play some 5 on 5.”

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