Former Duke star Cooper Flagg interviewed with the Boston Celtics this week at the NBA combine, a development that has caused speculation near the top of the draft. While it's unlikely the Dallas Mavericks move off the No. 1 pick since they're eyeing Flagg as their new face of the franchise after trading Luke Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Celtics' interest does offer intrigue given Friday night's loss to the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Boston holds the No. 28 overall pick next month. The Mavericks won this week's draft lottery despite a 1.8% chance to do so.
"Now, this does not mean they are going to trade up into the Top 10, but I do think it's interesting at least the way it works at the draft combine," NBA insider Kevin O'Connor said this week, through sources. "Teams can interview up to 13 players, and they rank the players that they most want to interview."
Celtics star Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles injury in Game 5 of the playoff series and will have a long offseason of recovery. Jaylen Brown signed a five-year, supermax extension with the franchise ahead of the 2023-24 season.
The rest of the roster, if the Mavericks interested, would seemingly be expendable in a trade scenario.
Flagg told CBS Sports last summer ahead of his only season at Duke that he grew up an avid Celtics fan.
"We'd have a couple-hour drive for AAU tournaments and our little Chrysler van had a movie projector that would come down the middle and we'd pop in 85-86 Celtics the whole championship run and watch game by game, playing the whole thing over and over again," Flagg said. "I think the way they played, the way they got the ball out quickly, moved it down the court, the selflessness and unselfishness on that team of just accepting a role, doing the right things, putting your body on the line, it kind of embodies what a good team has to have. Everyone has to sacrifice something. Playing the game the right way will get you a lot farther than trying to do things you can't or don't help your team win. That type of influence has been invaluable to me."
Naturally, Flagg is comfortable in transition and always look to push tempo, which is one of Boston's staples. The former five-star and No. 1 overall player in the 2024 recruiting cycle declared for the draft in April after leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four as the national player of the year.
Via The Devils Den, Flagg led Duke in points (709), rebounds (277), assists (156), steals (52) and blocks per game (1.4), and ranked among the ACC's top-10 in four of the five major statistical categories _ scoring (third), rebounding (9th), assists (eighth) and blocked shots (sixth).
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He garnered both ACC player and rookie of the week honors in the same week five times this season, becoming the first player in ACC history to sweep the conference weekly awards more than twice. Flagg's 12 ACC Rookie of the Week citations are a new conference record.