Cooper Flagg’s ing acumen is one of the many traits that make him a special prospect. Just as we did with Kasparas Jakucionis, I hand-tracked all of Cooper Flagg’s es from this season so far (through February 17) to learn more about his playmaking chops.
Flagg’s raw ing numbers are strong for any prospect, let alone a 6’9 freshman — 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio, 24.9% assist rate and 14.8% turnover rate. The metrics I’m tracking lined up with the perception of Flagg as an excellent ing prospect.
cooper flagg tracking
— Ben Pfeifer (@bjpf.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 11:16 PM
As always, this tracking aims to capture important aspects of a player’s ing skill that aren’t captured in box scores or even traditional advanced metrics. It’s critical to know how a player handles pressure, where they like to to and from and how often they make NBA-level es.
Cooper Flagg is a big time er
Of the 160 ing chances (potential assists + ing turnovers) I tracked on Synergy through Flagg’s first 26 games, 24.4% of them were “big-time es,” inspired by Pro Football Focus’s Big Time Throws metric. These es display a high level of vision, anticipation, manipulation or creativity and often come in tight windows or on the move.
I’ve charted ing chances for seven 2025 prospects so far (Flagg, Harper, Jakucionis, Derik Queen, Jase Richardson, Labaron Philon, VJ Edgecombe). Of those seven, Flagg’s big-time rate ranks second in the group, only trailing Queen (26.7%). He’s constantly attempting and converting high-level es, like this left-handed lob in a tight window with perfect accuracy:
holy shit cooper flagg???
— Ben Pfeifer (@bjpf.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 9:33 PM
It’s easy for tall, dynamic players like Flagg to when defenses don’t bother them, but Flagg is a strong er under pressure. He spent 15.6% of his ing chances under pressure (4th out of 7 prospects), finding potential assists on a huge 80% of those chances. The sample here isn’t huge (25 possessions) but the success here is encouraging nonetheless.
cooper flagg insane twisting ing under pressure pic.twitter.com/vMoccS2J
— bjpfclips (@bjpfclips) February 19, 2025
This data only covers ing chances under pressure and ing turnovers. Flagg is excellent at limiting ing turnovers (10% ing turnover rate), but the majority of his turnovers result from his loose handle. Defenses who pressure Flagg often pluck the ball from him, which is a notable concern (but not the focus of this exploration), but he tends to make solid decisions when he doesn’t lose the ball.
Flagg can improve his handle
Flagg’s current handling limitations influence his extremely low live dribble ing rate (1.4%), the lowest of any prospect I’ve charted. Remarkably, just two of his 160 ing chances (clipped below) were live dribble es. He lacks the ball control to blend his dribble into es, which leads to turnovers, but this means that handling improvement could directly correlate with playmaking progression.
cooper flagg live dribble es pic.twitter.com/R4KTkj4Ikc
— bjpfclips (@bjpfclips) February 19, 2025
Flagg’s ing manipulation, especially on interior es, help him toss elite es throughout games. His 11.7% manipulation rate and his 28.3% rim potential assist rate both rank second among the seven prospects I’ve tracked. Flagg weaponizes pump fakes, eye movement and body language to crack open ing windows, often for high-value layup and dunk es.
I’ll continue to update my tracking sheet throughout the cycle, but for now, Flagg grades out as one of the best ers in the draft, regardless of position.
