Capture The Flagg

With Duke making it all the way to the Final Four, it’s needless to say, but Cooper Flagg and the
rest of this Duke squad made headlines all throughout the college basketball season — mostly
surrounding how great Flagg and the rest of the team were playing and winning games, of
course. The Blue Devils were number one in their respective conference with a record of 19-1
in-conference and an overall record of 35-4.

Due to a couple of unfortunate circumstances, the Blue Devils would eventually fall to Houston
this past Saturday in a late comeback run by the Houston Cougars, led by Coach Kelvin
Sampson, who was quoted as saying, “No one ever loses at anything as long as you don’t quit.
When you quit, I don’t care — you’ve lost.” Houston won the game after being down by 7 with
only a minute and twenty-seven seconds left, out-dueling the prohibitive favorite, the Duke Blue
Devils, led by Head Coach Jon Scheyer and his freshman superstar Cooper Flagg — the
eventual number one overall pick in this coming NBA Draft.

The hope for NBA franchises is that Cooper does leave Duke after his one and only season
there to eventually be selected at the top of the draft this summer. The teams in contention for
that number one overall spot are as follows: the Utah Jazz hold the worst record in the league at
16-63 after a loss against the Atlanta Hawks last night, with only three games to go. They’ve
been on the hunt for that number one pick since the season started, it seems — funny enough.
This whole “Capture the Flagg” gimmick seems very real for Utah and for other teams, like the
Washington Wizards, who hold a record of 17-61 after losing to the defending champions, the
Boston Celtics.

The Wizards, funny enough, aren’t in contention for having the worst possible future asset pool
— they’ve got loads of draft capital for years to come, along with three first-round picks from last
year’s draft. I think they came away winning, as they’ve got Alex Starr, who’s impressed more
and more as the season went on, along with Bub Carrington and Keyshawn George, who have
both impressed in spurts. They also stole AJ Johnson from the Bucks in the Kyle Kuzma trade
— another first-round pick in this past draft.

The Wizards have a collection of assets to build around, along with Jordan Poole, who’s shown
some level of upside — whether they flip him in a trade or let him be one of the franchise
leaders. They’ve also brought in key veterans like Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart to shape
the mold and build good habits for this young group to lean on.

Another team in the hunt for that number one overall selection would be the Charlotte Hornets,
who have been ridiculously awful for the past couple of years. They’ve managed to acquire
some strong assets through the draft, like Brandon Miller — who’s shown great promise but
suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist that cut his sophomore season short. The other
fascinating player on the Hornets is clearly LaMelo Ball, who is hands down one of the most
popular and flat-out fun players to watch in the league — when he’s healthy, of course.

LaMelo, in the past three seasons alone, has missed more games than he’s played, suiting up
for only 47 games this year before being shut down. The Hornets can’t afford to win games, and in all fairness, he probably shouldn’t be playing those games anyway. All Hornets fans can do is
hope LaMelo has a healthy season next year alongside Brandon Miller, paired with a top
prospect — hopefully Cooper Flagg, of course.

Outside of those crystal-clear tanking squads, there’s a short list of other teams aiming for the
same goal — like the Philadelphia 76ers, who are desperately trying to stay in the bottom six.
Their upcoming first-round pick is only top-6 protected, and if it somehow drops out of the top 6,
the rights go to none other than the Oklahoma City Thunder — funny enough. It’d be a hell of a
reward to end up with the number one pick after a depressing season, to say the least. Nothing
about this Sixers season has been relatively positive, aside from Jared McCain being flat-out
awesome — but he unfortunately suffered a season-ending injury.

In the end, whoever lands that number one slot gets the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg —
and it could completely change the trajectory of a franchise based solely on how good Cooper
could really be. With his size, athleticism, and skill, he’s got all the tools to be great. Hopefully,
he ends up on the right team with the right group of guys and a coaching staff that really
understands his game and helps him unlock another level.

Cooper’s 18 years old and should be regarded as one of the best NBA prospects to join the
league in recent memory. In terms of sheer hype and excitement, I’d say maybe Wemby-levels.
It’s that big of a deal. We’ve already seen what San Antonio thinks they can do with Wemby at
the helm — they’ve made a franchise-altering trade to bring in star point guard De’Aaron Fox
and are gearing up for a playoff run next season, considering how their top pick from only two
years ago is already regarded as one of the best players in the league — and maybe the most
valuable asset in the NBA.

With all that being said… Can you imagine if the Spurs somehow win the lottery and get Cooper
Flagg and Victor Wembanyama on the same team? Oh man. Oh man. It’s really possible —
that’s the funny part.

Cooper Flagg still hasn’t technically declared for the NBA Draft, but odds are he will. We’ll have
to see how the lottery balls shake out — and witness a franchise-altering selection this
upcoming summer.