Cooper Flagg dropped a career-high 49 points on Thursday night against the Charlotte Hornets, but that wasn't enough to impress former Dallas Maverick Jamal Mashburn. He played for Dallas from 1993 until 1997, but his ties to the Mavericks didn't stop him from making one of the worst takes about Flagg when comparing him to the 2026 NBA draft class.
This class is headlined by AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson, and Cam Boozer, and Mashburn believes that Flagg would be behind five freshmen if he were in college this season.
"If I was to put (Cooper Flagg) on that list (of current freshmen), he would be 6th," Mashburn said on TNT.
This stance is not only nonsensical, but it directly contradicts how many around the league view Flagg just over three months into his NBA career. One NBA scout told The Smoking Cuban last month that, despite this year's strong freshman class, he would still take Flagg No. 1 overall in this summer's draft if eligible.
Mashburn thinks Flagg wouldn't break the top five of this year's draft
The five freshmen that Mashburn had in front of Flagg were Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, Wilson, and Koa Peat from Arizona, and these are the type of takes that are just flat-out unexcusable.
This buzz all started after a report surfaced at the beginning of the season, which indicated some NBA executives believed Flagg would go third, at best, in this summer's draft if he hadn't reclassified. These anonymous executives even indicated that Flagg could fall to the fifth or sixth pick in this draft.
This report surfaced when Flagg was having a rough start to the season, as he averaged 15.0 points per game through his first 11 games while shooting 42 percent from the field and 26 percent from downtown. These executives were just hitting Flagg while he was down, but they're eating crow now.
In 2026, Flagg is averaging 20.8 points per game while shooting around 48 percent from the field and over 41 percent from downtown. He has looked unstoppable over the last two games, scoring a combined 83 points in the last two games, and Mashburn couldn't have dropped this claim at a worse time.
The clip was posted hours before Flagg finished with 34 points against the Houston Rockets while shooting over 50 percent from the field, and this narrative shouldn't be able to fly for much longer. Flagg has been one of the best teenagers that this league has ever seen, and there's no way in the world that a handful of this year's incoming freshman rookies are going to be better than him.
Flagg is impactful on both ends, plays harder than anyone, and is showing signs that he has the bones to be an offensive engine one day. Jason Kidd's decision to play him at point guard to begin the season, despite the growing pains, has paid off massively. He is so much more comfortable with the ball in his hands now than he was early on, and he truly gets better every single game.
His ability to get to the rim and finish with either hand, and even score from the mid-range with pull-up jumpers, looks like that of an NBA veteran, and his success lately isn't an accident. His hard work all season long and never-quenched thirst to succeed shine through every time he takes the floor, and it's going to take a lot for even one of next season's rookies to pass him up.
Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer are each special in their own way, but Flagg's performance through the first 45 games of his career has been historic. Even if he didn't reclassify and veto his final year of high school, he'd be right at the top of this year's draft class, and Flagg is poised to continue to silence the doubters as his rookie season treks on.