Cooper Flagg has been conceived of as the surefire top overall pick in this June's NBA Draft since he reclassified two years ago, and despite taking on the enormous pressure of getting into the draft sooner, Flagg has only strengthened his case this year. Around him in the lottery, Rutgers' Dylan Harper has been doing a convincing Ethical James Harden bit; Baylor's VJ Edgecombe has been making all the draft hardcores I read flush in awe; and Harper's teammate Ace Bailey has finally learned to pass the basketball, showing both an awareness of other people lacking through the first three months of the season and the capacity to grow and change. Nothing that cohort, nor anyone else in college or international basketball, has done has been as impressive as what Flagg's been doing at Duke. Not only has he produced at a staggering level, he's playing tomorrow's basketball today.
With hopefully just a few more games left in his college career, and with the stinky end of the NBA content to befoul the court now that the trade deadline has passed and its members can lose in peace, it is time to consider where Flagg could end up. More to the point, where he should end up. Not every team in the lottery is as worthy, by my arbitrary standards, of capturing the Flagg. The NBA Draft's structure limits how much money Flagg can make for many years, and the draft lottery means he has zero control over where he will work for the majority of the next decade. Such is life in the NBA, under the current collective bargaining agreement. Some players walk the blessed path and end up in a great city and on a great roster, and others are drafted by the Sacramento Kings.
Consider the 2023 draft. Victor Wembanyama ended up in San Antonio, an extremely stable franchise with a long history of developing young players and winning a ton of games. He made an all-star team in his second season and the Spurs are already acquiring star-level players who fit alongside him as they aim to contend next season. One pick later, Brandon Miller ended up in Charlotte, a non-franchise whose chief contribution to basketball is LaMelo Ball shooting 15 one-legged threes per game while Eric Collins wages war on local eardrums.
Context is everything, and with how good Flagg appears to be, a good deal of the future of the NBA will be decided at the lottery. With that in mind, here is an unscientific, correct assessment of where he should end up. We will begin at the bottom of the standings, progressing northward, and assigning each team a score out of 10.
Washington Wizards
This would be cool. The Wizards are finally on something like the right track after a couple seasons spent treading water, especially now that they have shipped out Kyle Kuzma. Their veterans are inefficient enough that they're losing tons of games, though their young guys are good enough that they have exhibited isolated pickets of friskiness. Bilal Coulibaly can do stuff on both ends of the court, Alex Sarr can kind of do some stuff on one end, and they have one of my personal favorite players, AJ Johnson, flying around and occasionally dunking it crazy-style. None of those guys can be anything close to a primary option on anything close to a competitive team, but with Flagg on the court, they would make a lot more sense. They would have a pretty rangy and huge defensive frontcourt, and, critically, they would be bad enough for at least one more year to dip into the top of the seemingly quite good 2026 draft.
Flagg score: 7.4
Utah Jazz
As bad as the Jazz have been since ditching Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, they have very few decent prospects. Keyonte George is tiny and shooting under 40 percent. Cody Williams is so alarmingly bad that he can't even credibly play big minutes for a team trying to lose. Taylor Hendricks suffered a horrific injury at the start of this season. Isaiah Collier has had a nice little run of games that totally don't matter and don't change my mind about how limited he is. Walker Kessler has stagnated. Their best prospect is probably Kyle Filipowski. Surely the Jazz deserve a change in their fortunes? They do not.
Flagg score: 2.8
Charlotte Hornets
And with the fourth pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Hornets select: Ace Bailey!
Flagg score: 4.5
New Orleans Pelicans
I am arguing against my own interests on a number of axes here, but Flagg on the Pelicans would be cool. Zion Williamson, who is healthy for like two out of every seven months, is enjoying one of his rare periods of health, and despite losing 1 million games this season, New Orleans still has bunch of good players. Flagg would not need to run the offense all that often, and he's the sort of mythic rangy defender/shooter that would actually fit alongside a fully torqued-up Zion. My main quibble here is that, again, Zion's ligaments are only intact on a quarterly basis.
Flagg score: 5.9
Brooklyn Nets
My ideal Flagg team. The Nets play hard as hell, fighting and scrapping and winning more games than their fanbase wants them to win, because they have a bunch of cool-ish wings and because Jordi Fernandez appears to be a great coach. What they have in effort, they lack in talent. They have zero blue-chip prospects—their best young player is probably Ziaire Williams, and he's merely the best of a big crop of wings whose chief gift is running a lot and not being afraid of anyone—though they have a ton of picks to build around Flagg. I think the NBA is more interesting when the big-market teams are good, and as embarrassing as the Nets have been over the last decade-plus, I would like to see them be good again.
Flagg score: 8.1
Toronto Raptors
Sure, fine, what is yet another 6-foot-9 guy on a roster stocked with them? I don't mind the Raptors for Flagg: They have a huge, dedicated fanbase, and they are not so bad that he'd be stuck playing totally meaningless games for several years. I don't really trust Masai Ujiri's vision for the team right now, and while the wingification of the NBA is undeniable, some of those guys need to be able to, you know, dribble and pass the basketball.
Flagg score: 5.4
Philadelphia 76ers
No.
Flagg score: 0.0
San Antonio Spurs
On the one hand, Flagg and Wemby as teammates would be deliriously fun on-court, with the two noodle men throwing each other alley-oops and blocking a ton of shots, and De'Aaron Fox setting them up for tons of open looks. It would be fun to see Flagg on a contender, and as bad as this would be for competitive balance, worrying about competitive balance is the province of the league office and also fans of terminally bad teams. Flagg would have pressure from Day 1, as the Spurs will be trying to win next season, provided Wemby is healthy. On the other hand, the Spurs have already won one lottery, and I find their fans annoying and entitled, so I'd be a little bummed if they won another.
Flagg score: 5.0
Chicago Bulls
Sure, fine, whatever. I want the Bulls to be good, though it's not clear their own front office wants the same thing, with hopefully soon-to-be-fired GM Arturas Karnisovas overseeing several years of anonymous play-in exits and lower-lottery picks. Chicago's front office and ownership situation is so nasty that I have no faith that they can execute a rebuild, though Bulls fans deserve an actually great player.
Flagg score: 4.7
Portland Trail Blazers
Portland's been very frisky this season, with Toumani Camara showing so much on defense that the Blazers have accidentally played their way into no-man's land and saved their bad coach's job. Scoot Henderson has been decent for a few months and Donovan Clingan is probably straight-up better than Deandre Ayton, so while they are a somewhat misshapen team, there's some talent here. I'm down.
Flagg score: 4.8
