{"id":135551,"date":"2025-04-21T12:27:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135551"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:27:55","slug":"cooper-flagg-nba-draft-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/21\/cooper-flagg-nba-draft-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke Star Cooper Flagg Declares for NBA Draft: What&#8217;s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/05\/impressive-debut-for-cooper-flagg\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> his dynamic debut<\/a>, Duke star freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/cooper-flagg-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cooper Flagg<\/a> has been among the top NBA draft prospects. An elite start culminated with one of the greatest freshman seasons ever. Flagg won the Wooden Award as the nation&#8217;s top player. He led Duke to the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/05\/how-each-2025-final-four-team-could-win-the-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">\u00a0Final Four<\/a>, falling short of a national championship in a historic collapse. One question remained: would the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/10\/2025-nba-mock-draft-3-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">presumed number one overall pick<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/07\/why-cooper-flagg-should-return-to-duke\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">remain at Duke to win a title<\/a> or head to the NBA draft? On Monday, Flagg announced his decision to forego the rest of his college eligibility and declare for the NBA draft. So, where could Flagg land? And what&#8217;s next for Duke moving forward?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">League next. Duke forever. <\/p>\n<p>Thank you <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cooper_Flagg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Cooper_Flagg<\/a>\u203c\ufe0f\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\ude08 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PLapqqvZnj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/PLapqqvZnj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Duke Men\u2019s Basketball (@DukeMBB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DukeMBB\/status\/1914328778773328026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Duke Star Cooper Flagg Declares for NBA Draft: What&#8217;s Next?<\/h2>\n<h3>Cooper Flagg&#8217;s Potential Landing Spots in the NBA Draft?<\/h3>\n<p>Any team with a lottery pick has a chance, but there are clear <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/19\/2025-nba-draft-lottery-odds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">favorites in the odds<\/a>. While the Atlanta Hawks moved up to grab the number one pick last year, there is only a 12.5% chance that one of the bottom six teams moves up. That leaves the Spurs, Raptors, Nets, 76ers, Pelicans, Hornets, Wizards, and Jazz with the most realistic chances of winning the draft lottery. After officially declaring for the NBA Draft, Cooper Flagg will be the top pick, so whoever wins will get a superstar.<\/p>\n<p>Out of those options, the 76ers would be the best current landing spot in terms of win-now upside. After a tumultuous 2024-25 season full of injuries, they have a rare opportunity to draft in the top six picks while also having what some consider to be a championship contender roster. Landing Flagg would extend this championship window and give Flagg the best chance to win early in his career.<\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s Next for Duke?<\/h3>\n<p>All is not lost for a program like Duke. Losing the best player in college basketball is certainly not something that helps a program. However, Jon Scheyer remains one of the best recruiters and coaches in college basketball. Duke has an elite <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/duke\/season\/2025-basketball\/commits\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high school class<\/a>, adding one of the top recruits in the country again in Cameron Boozer. Boozer may live up to the expectations of Flagg, but time will tell. With some key players returning, they will have a chance to build up a championship roster again.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Blue Devils have been completely silent in the transfer portal. Flagg declared for the NBA draft along with teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/kon-knueppel-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kon Knueppel<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/khaman-maluach-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khaman Maluach<\/a> will likely follow. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/tyrese-proctor-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Proctor<\/a> even chose to forego his last year of eligibility to enter the draft. That&#8217;s already four players lost simply to the draft, let alone graduation.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a good sign that the Blue Devils haven&#8217;t lost a player to the transfer portal, but they need to find a player or two to come in. There is still a plethora of top talent left, but they will need to grab one of them soon. With decisions looming for many of the top targets, the Blue Devils have to work their way into the conversation. Many expected their departure, but with Jai Lucas, one of the top recruiters in the country, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/06\/grading-miami-hiring-jai-lucas-head-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">leaving for Miami<\/a>, they will struggle to win battles. For now, don&#8217;t press the panic button. This team will find incredible talent, but will it be enough to win a championship?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since his dynamic debut, Duke star freshman Cooper Flagg has been among the top NBA draft prospects. An elite start culminated with one of the greatest freshman seasons ever. Flagg won the Wooden Award as the nation&#8217;s top player. He led Duke to the\u00a0Final Four, falling short of a national championship in a historic collapse. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":135571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,3],"tags":[49375,3120,48964,861],"class_list":["post-135551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-news","tag-2025-nba-draft","tag-acc-basketball","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-duke-blue-devils"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135551"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135573,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135551\/revisions\/135573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}