Cooper Flagg has the potential to be a historic rookie.
The Dallas Mavericks took Flagg at No. 1 overall out of Duke knowing that his future was as bright as could be. The rest of the league has known it for a while, too, and the Mavs were the lucky team that got the top spot in the lottery and the right to take Flagg.
Now, Flagg is about to start his rookie season, and if it goes according to plan, he could make history.
The Athletic's John Hollinger projects Flagg to win the Rookie of the Year award unanimously. Only six others have won it unanimously before.
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Those previous six unanimous choices form a pretty strong list:
Ralph Sampson
David Robinson
Blake Griffin
Karl-Anthony Towns
Damian Lillard
Victor Wembanyama
"The Mavericks’ rookie forward graded out far ahead of his peers in both my eye-test evaluations of draft prospects and in the statistical model I use to help inform my draft takes, and he couldn’t have landed in a better situation," Hollinger writes. "The Mavs will need him to start and take on a major ballhandling load because they’re thin on quality guards with Kyrie Irving recovering from a torn ACL, assuring Flagg will put up the kind of counting stats that settle any debate."
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Flagg has spent a lot of the preseason getting point guard reps.
He's also spent a lot of the preseason hanging on rims.
That combination should draw him enough attention all season long to have a really good shot at this unanimous honor.
It'd take a big season out of someone like V.J. Edgecombe, Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey to distract voters from Flagg's greatness.
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