{"id":151060,"date":"2025-07-19T02:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T06:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151060"},"modified":"2025-07-19T14:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:53:06","slug":"jason-kidd-giving-cooper-flagg-the-giannis-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/19\/jason-kidd-giving-cooper-flagg-the-giannis-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Kidd Giving Cooper Flagg The Giannis Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s fair to say Cooper Flagg<\/a> landing with the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> as the 1st overall pick last month saved the team. Fans and the front office spent the second half of the season clashing after the Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> trade. Now, with the 18-year-old prodigy on board, the Mavericks can breathe again. They can pivot to their generational prospect if their championship plans collapse.<\/p>\n

Jason Kidd And Mavs Staff Giving Cooper Flagg The Giannis Treatment<\/h2>\n

Kidd Wants Flagg\u2019s Playmaking to Expand<\/h3>\n
\"Giannis
Dec 15, 2017; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd talks to forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) in the fourth quarter during the game against the Chicago Bulls at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In these early days of his NBA career, the Mavericks want Flagg to expand his playmaking. Flagg knows top lottery picks rarely get this many championship vets around them so soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to being a sponge,\u201d Flagg said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kidd Sees Flagg as a Point Forward<\/h3>\n

Kidd has already shared plans to use Flagg as a point guard, shooting guard, and small forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to put him at point guard,\u201d Kidd said<\/a>. \u201cI want to make him uncomfortable and see how he reacts. Be able to run the show. Be able to play shooting guard. Play small forward. He\u2019s comfortable playing that. We want to push. I think he\u2019s going to respond in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer League Shows the Vision<\/h3>\n

In Summer League, the Mavericks tested Cooper Flagg as a point forward. At Duke, Flagg led his team in assists (4.2) with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2-to-1.<\/p>\n

He brought the ball up. He ran plays as the primary ball handler. Kidd kept his word, throwing him against point-of-attack defenders. Those reps showed the limits of Flagg\u2019s current handle.<\/p>\n

No cause for concern, though. He\u2019s 18. He will improve. Jaylen Brown<\/a> did.<\/p>\n

Kidd Knows This Blueprint<\/h3>\n

Interestingly, Kidd has trusted a young player with point forward duties before \u2014 Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. Back in 2016, Kidd coached the Bucks when he handed Giannis the keys to the offense. Giannis has gone on to become a two-time MVP and an NBA champion.<\/p>\n

A Big Opportunity Now<\/h3>\n

The Mavs\u2019 stacked frontcourt and Kyrie Irving\u2019s<\/a> rehab from his torn ACL mean Flagg will get real reps as a primary ball handler.<\/p>\n

That will unlock more of his game. He\u2019ll find Anthony Davis<\/a> for lobs, just like he did for Khaman Maluach<\/a>. He\u2019ll hit Klay Thompson<\/a> on cuts, just like he did for Kon Knueppel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The more Flagg runs the offense, the higher his ceiling climbs. Maybe to heights only Giannis Antetokounmpo knows.<\/p>\n

DALLAS \u2013 It\u2019s fair to say Cooper Flagg landing with the Dallas Mavericks as the 1st overall pick last month saved the team. Fans and the front office spent the second half of the season clashing after the Luka Don\u010di\u0107 trade. Now, with the 18-year-old prodigy on board, the Mavericks can breathe again. They can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":151061,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,30,3],"tags":[48964,306,218,1224],"class_list":["post-151060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-news","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jason-kidd","tag-nba-summer-league"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151060","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\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151154,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151060\/revisions\/151154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}