Cooper Flagg: The Next Generation of Basketball Talent, Expected to be the Top Pick in the 2025 NBA Draft

For about two years, Cooper Flagg has been expected to be the top pick in the 2025 NBA draft. That expectation will finally become a reality on Wednesday, as the Dallas Mavericks are set to select the former Duke star first overall.

The biggest question during draft week is not who will go No. 1, but what kind of player the Mavericks will be getting in one of the most intriguing prospects of the last 15 years. "He trends like LeBron James," said Brian Scalabrine, who played 11 years in the NBA and has been training with Flagg since he was in his early teens. "LeBron has a beautiful mind when it comes to this game. Cooper’s brain is right on par with those guys. They just process the game differently."

"I really think he’s going to be one of those guys who makes people around him better," said Orlando Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley, who coached Flagg on the USA Select Team last summer. "People might get caught up in his numbers. But I think he’s going to be one of those pluses that’s always on the floor, all the while finding his range and his space."

Grant Hill, the managing director of USA Basketball, said Flagg's best attribute is his versatility. "He can read the game and figure out what’s needed from him for his team to have success," Hill told NBC News. "He assesses what’s happening in the game and has the talent and ability to provide what’s needed, and that’s unique particularly for someone so young."

Flagg, 18, grew up in Newport, Maine, before attending his final two years of high school at Montverde Academy in central Florida. After his sophomore year, Flagg reclassified from the high school class of 2025 to 2024, immediately becoming a senior and putting himself on track to enter the NBA this summer.

His prowess as a player, however, dates back much further. As with many legends, Flagg’s earliest memories of competition are from his driveway, where he would often play his twin brother, Ace, in a game of one-on-one. "That’s where it started, for sure, scrapping it out in the driveway," Flagg told NBC News at an AT&T Flaggship Experience event. "You never want to lose to your brothers."

Ace Flagg said the battles were incredibly physical. "Without fail, any time we played, someone’s running inside to Mom crying because someone hit them," he said.

By the time he was 13, Cooper's parents were so invested in his basketball career that he had a trainer, Matt Mackenzie. It was Mackenzie who put him on Scalabrine’s radar. "Matt calls me up and says, ‘I got this 13-year-old kid who plays against University of Maine kids. The first 15 minutes he’s feeling it out, and the last 15 minutes he’s the best player on the floor,'" Scalabrine said. "In this situation, in my mind, I love Matt, but you’re nuts."

Scalabrine was skeptical, so he invited Flagg to participate in a pickup game he organizes in Boston, which Scalabrine said includes former pros and college players. "And sure enough, the guy walks out of the SUV, throws on his knee braces and dominates the run," Scalabrine said. "The level of my gym went to a 100x than it normally would. Right then and there, I told his parents he would go to the NBA."

Flagg continued to shine no matter what court he was playing on. In his first season at Nokomis Regional High School, he became the first freshman to win Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year award. He also put up dominant performances for his AAU team. At Nike’s Peach Jam tournament in the summer of 2023, going head-to-head against other top prospects