Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg is more in his comfort zone on the court after head coach Jason Kidd shifted him off the point guard position.
“It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility that comes with being a point guard,” Flagg said, per the Dallas Morning News‘ Mike Curtis. “I don’t know if I was ready to handle that right off the bat. I tried my best and that’s not to say I can’t go back to it and I can’t work on it and get better. I think it’s just worked out lately where it’s been better to have somebody else help and relieve pressure. It doesn’t mean I can’t bring it up and initiate offense.”
The Mavs are without their No. 1 playmaker, Kyrie Irving, as he continues to recover from a torn ACL. While the team signed D’Angelo Russell to bolster the backcourt, Kidd, signaled in June he intended to play Flagg at the point in order to “make him uncomfortable.”
Adjusting to the speed of the NBA is a challenge even for guards who spent years in college leading an offense. The learning curve was much steeper for Flagg as Duke head coach Jon Scheyer had deployed him as a forward during his lone season in Durham.
Kidd has at least shelved the experiment for now. Dallas has started either Russell or Brandon Williams for six straight games after neither was in the starting lineup for the Mavericks’ first seven contests.
The impact on Flagg’s performance seems pretty evident. He averaged 13.6 points on 38.8 percent shooting with 6.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists while ostensibly serving as the starting point guard.
Since Kidd’s tactical change, the 6’9″ standout is shooting 48.3 percent from the field and scoring 17 points per night while actually dishing out more assists (3.3).
Throwing Flagg into the deep end makes sense if it’s part of a larger plan. Ideally, he’ll ease into a point-forward role over time, and playing point guard gave him a crash course in what that’s like in the NBA. That gave him a good idea of what life is like as your team’s top scoring option in the pros, too.
Especially with the Mavs potentially heading toward a rebuild after the firing of general manager Nico Harrison, the organization can afford to nonetheless be patient with Flagg’s development as an NBA talent.
