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2025 NBA Draft: Which lottery hopeful is the best fit for Cooper Flagg?

2025 NBA Draft: Which lottery hopeful is the best fit for Cooper Flagg?

Fox News09-04-2025

Cooper Flagg had a remarkable freshman season at Duke.
On a Blue Devils team that claimed a No. 1 seed in the 2025 NCAA Men's Tournament and reached the Final Four, Flagg showcased his ability to be a leading source of offense — attacking the rack, playing in isolation and boasting a respectable perimeter jumper. He also wreaked havoc on the defensive end, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting 48.1/38.5/84.0.
Flagg ended the season with ACC All-Defense honors and was named the ACC Player of the Year. Unfortunately for Flagg, his freshman campaign ended in cataclysmic fashion, as Duke blew a six-point lead in the final minute of play against Houston in the Final Four.
Flagg will likely be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. While the lottery balls will determine who picks where, Utah, Washington, Charlotte, New Orleans and Philadelphia currently own the league's five worst records.
That said, here's how the aforementioned lottery teams rank as fits for Flagg.
The Hornets have a lot of compelling young players, but they continue to be a franchise going nowhere. Getting Flagg could be the pickup that finally turns the tide for Charlotte.
LaMelo Ball is an All-Star caliber scorer; Brandon Miller has the sharp offensive skill set to be a building block; Mark Williams is a productive, young center. Still, the Hornets haven't won 30 games in three seasons. Upon joining Charles Lee's rotation, Flagg wouldn't be relied on to play hero, as Ball is accustomed to taking on the scoring burden and Miller has displayed the ability to shoot and score with consistency.
Flagg letting the game come to him, forcing the issue at the rim and gradually getting acclimated would give the Hornets a potentially potent trio to build around in Flagg, Ball and Miller. The soon-to-be rookie forward could be the oomph that the Hornets need.
What puts Charlotte at the bottom of the best fits for Flagg, though, is forward Miles Bridges also being under contract for the next two years (potential forward logjam with Flagg) and the Hornets potentially feeling that using their top draft pick to trade for a substantial veteran enhancement is more worthwhile than continuing to add rookies.
The Sixers are the biggest disappointment in the NBA this season, but if they land the first overall pick or trade up to get it, Flagg creates a fascinating situation regarding their future.
At first glance, adding star talent to a roster that already includes Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George stands out. Flagg would be, at least, a tertiary source of offense and potentially serve as Philly's sixth man in a role where he plays 30 minutes a night. Given the chronic health concerns with Embiid and George, Flagg's scoring knack gives the 76ers tremendous frontcourt depth.
There's another way this could play out: Philadelphia drafts Flagg, makes him and Maxey the co-faces of their franchise and looks to get off of both Embiid and George in trades. If they're able to move one (if not both of Embiid and George), the duo of Maxey and Flagg allows the Sixers to retool, not rebuild, as the 24-year-old Maxey is a proven All-Star-caliber scorer in his own right, and Flagg is built to be plug-and-play. Plus, Quentin Grimes — who has been a loud emergence down the stretch for Philadelphia, averaging 22.6 points per game in his 26 games with the team — could be another long-term piece to the puzzle.
Flagg either gives Philadelphia outrageous scoring depth or offers them a chance to regroup for the better in quick order. Of course, the amount of moving pieces that could be part of adding Flagg and the difficulty that comes with moving Embiid and/or George (both injury and contract-related) could get in the way of the Duke star and the Sixers being a smooth fit.
From injuries to racking up losses, this season has been a train wreck for the Pelicans. This season leading to Flagg could end up getting them back on track, though.
With Brandon Ingram gone (New Orleans moved him at the trade deadline), a potential void exists in the Pelicans' starting five. Granted, a healthy Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones could fill that void. However, the Pelicans could also get Flagg, manage their roster as if he were their franchise player and find a team that's willing to take a chance on the oft-injured Zion Williamson in a trade.
In the wake of such a move, Flagg would become the focal point of head coach Willie Green's offense, giving the Pelicans a well-rounded scorer who could be their go-to player in due time. With everybody healthy come next season, Flagg would be accompanied by the versatile Dejounte Murray, a trio of continually blossoming wings in Murphy, Jones and Jordan Hawkins, a veteran scorer in CJ McCollum and an emerging inside force in Yves Missi. All of a sudden, the Pelicans have a core that complements itself and is on the same timeline.
However, what stops the Pelicans from being No. 1 or 2 on this list is that a pair of teams have a clear need in their rotation that Flagg fills, whereas his fit in New Orleans is somewhat dependent on moving Williamson.
With the amount of wheeling and dealing the Jazz have done over the past three years, it's difficult to get a sense of how they view themselves. And, in the present, they have the worst record in the NBA. Getting Flagg would be a godsend for Utah.
Lauri Markkanen has grown into one of the better-scoring big men in the sport in Utah, but his scoring has dipped in each of the past two seasons. Flagg joining the mix takes some of the pressure off Markkanen to manufacture offense and makes Utah's rotation look different for the long haul.
Keyonte George has quickly become both a reliable scorer and facilitator; Walker Kessler is a rock in the paint on both ends of the floor; rookie Isaiah Collier has showcased playmaking ability; second-year player Brice Sensabaugh and wing Johnny Juzang have had scoring spurts. In drafting Flagg, the Jazz would get a new face to the franchise who, along with the roster that he joins, gives them reason to at least aspire for a berth in the NBA Play-in Tournament next season.
What stops Utah from being the best fit for Flagg is it possibly viewing a Flagg-Markkanen-Kessler frontcourt as too big and/or slowing down its operation.
That said, there's a team with a hole that Flagg would emphatically fill.
The Wizards are down bad, and need a player to pinpoint as a future star. Enter Flagg.
It's not as if Washington doesn't have nice pieces. Rookie and former second overall pick Alex Sarr is a physical specimen on both ends of the floor who's surely a player to build with; Bilal Coulibaly is a scrappy player who's getting more productive; Corey Kispert is a proven shooter; rookie Kyshawn George has had his moments in a high-minute role. But that one franchise player still isn't present.
Flagg gives the Wizards their No. 1 scorer. He's the multidimensional scorer who can play in isolation and has the superstar upside that their roster doesn't possess. Flagg can play out his rookie season as their offensive centerpiece, go through the physical grind of being the focus of defensive attention and be better for all the bumps in the road that he encounters in his rookie season.
After moving both Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas — who Washington just signed to a three-year deal in the offseason — at the trade deadline, Jordan Poole, its leading scorer this season, could easily be the next player on the move. One way or another, adding a high-upside scorer is of the essence for Washington, and that player being their first-round pick (Flagg) is both financially ideal and lines up with its timeline.
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'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class
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'One of best weeks of my life.' Putting a bow on Indiana All-Stars, 2025 graduating class

The completion of the Indiana All-Stars series against Kentucky is always a little emotional, maybe more for the parents than the players. Literally a day later for many of the All-Stars, they check in at their colleges and officially close the door on their high school experience. Lives change. Parents say goodbye, knowing it will never quite be the same as it was those first 18 years — no matter how far away their sons or daughters are going away to college. I was reminded of that fact Saturday after the Indiana All-Stars' team defeated Kentucky 105-92 to sweep the boys from the Bluegrass state for the 19th time in the past 26 years of the series that dates to 1940 (not counting the cancelled year of 2020). There were plenty of hugs and smiles and then … poof … they were gone. Time marches on. Maybe I'm a little more emotional and connected to this 2025 class because I have a graduate of my own in this class. 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OKLAHOMA CITY – This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don't try to understand it, because he doesn't. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers' 123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? 'I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,' the Pacers All-Star guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes Sunday, Haliburton was all but invisible: five points, three rebounds, five assists, five turnovers. The Thunder led 98-76, and this game was over. Yes, even against the Pacers, who have made the impossible look routine during these playoffs — winning a combination of four games, one in each series, that as a parlay would've had odds of 1 in 17 billion. In those four wins, late-game comebacks against the Bucks, Cavaliers, Knicks and then Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday, Haliburton hit the key shot: game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and a buzzer-beater to force overtime at New York. That's the magic of Haliburton, the way he makes the hardest shots look easy, over and over. In shots to tie the score or take the lead in the final five seconds of these 2025 NBA playoffs, the rest of the league is a combined 3-for-16. Haliburton is 4-for-4. Magical. And it keeps happening. Counting the regular season, in the game's final two minutes on shots to tie or take the lead, Haliburton is 13-for-15. These aren't free throws, but contested field goals against NBA defenses desperate to stop him. And he's 13-for-15? Abracadabra! But every so often, and if there's a trend, it's this — it happens after one of his special games — Haliburton disappears. Poof. But this game Sunday night, Game 2 of these NBA Finals, this was different than the disappearances that have come before. And there haven't been that many disappearances by Haliburton. It's fair to note that. It's also fair to note that, as the unquestioned star of this team, he can't afford to disappear … ever. And most NBA stars don't disappear. Put it like this: After Game 2, when OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points for his 13th game with at least 30 points in these playoffs — the most since Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 such games in 2021 – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted SGA's metronomic consistency. 'Shai,' Carlisle said, 'you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane.' Haliburton, you can't do that. There was Game 2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland, when he had four points and five assists after his buzzer-beater in Game 1. And there was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, when he had eight points, two rebounds and six assists after his 32-12-and-15 masterpiece of a triple-double in Game 4. Then came Sunday night in OKC, when Haliburton followed his latest game-winner from Game 1 by fizzling for the first 39 minutes as Game 2 got so far away, not even the Pacers could come back. With about 5½ minutes left, Carlisle waved the surrender flag by sending rookie Johnny Furphy to the scorer's table to replace Haliburton. But as I said, this was different from Haliburton's handful of disappearances that came before. Because after the 39-minute mark, with the Pacers down 22, with the game over, Haliburton went from fizzling to sizzling. You can say it doesn't matter, but did you see what OKC coach Mark Daigneault did? Seemed to matter to him. It starts for Haliburton with a baseline floater with 9:30 left. The Pacers are within 20. What does it matter, right? For most of 39 minutes, the Thunder have assigned NBA All-Defensive team ace Luguentz Dort to Haliburton. Dort is a menace, a tenacious physical marvel who goes 6-4, 220 pounds with the quick feet of someone much smaller. And Dort is following Haliburton for most of 94 feet, just getting in his face, his space, being physical and daring officials to blow their whistle on a night the tweets go mostly silent. Twenty-seven seconds later, Haliburton dribbles Dort into a 17-footer. It goes down, and now Haliburton has found something. Next time down he has the ball, hunting the rim, getting a screen and going to the basket for a dunk. Then he dribbles into a 30-footer, a 3-pointer. He has now made four straight shots and scored nine consecutive points for the Pacers, all in about 90 seconds, but the Pacers still trail by 19 — they can't stop anybody — and when Haliburton misses a 3-pointer it appears as if the spell is over. Here comes Furphy, walking to the scorer's table. Only now, it's about to get silly. Pacers guard T.J. McConnell is driving the baseline, like he does, and looking for a teammate, as he does, and spotting Haliburton behind him. McConnell throws it that way and Haliburton chases down the ball in the corner before launching a running 3-pointer as he heads out of bounds. The shot falls. In about an hour, long after Paycom Center has emptied out, Haliburton will sit down with reporters and talk about some things, mainly how poorly he played, but he dropped in this fascinating little nugget about those 12 points he scored in about five minutes of the fourth quarter. 'When you're down by so much,' he was saying, 'you can choose to just take the game for (the blowout) it is and just be done — or try to continue to learn different things.' Haliburton was learning, and Daigneault was watching. He sees what's happening. This game has been over for some time, but he's already planning for Game 3. He sees Haliburton heating up, getting that confidence that comes when he's having one of those magical nights, and he wants no part of this. Daigneault calls timeout, just to stop the clock. Just so Furphy can come in, and Haliburton can go out. Still think that sizzling stretch, in a blowout loss, doesn't matter? Not so sure. Carlisle wasn't having any discussion about Tyrese Haliburton's first 39 minutes. That's when the game got away from the Pacers, but is that why? Someone asks Carlisle about Haliburton, who 'struggled to get engaged.' Carlisle doesn't want to hear it. 'There's a lot more to the game than just scoring,' he said. 'Everybody's got to do more. It starts with the best players. It starts with, you know, Tyrese and Pascal (Siakam, 15 points) and Myles (Turner, 16 points), and then it goes from there. 'People shouldn't just look at (Haliburton's) points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that. That's just not — that's not how our team is built. I mean, we are an ecosystem that has to function together. We've got to score enough points to win the game, but who gets them and how they get them, not important.' Was he speaking 100% truth, or was Carlisle sending a message to Haliburton — not your fault — as he, like Daigneault earlier in the evening, was looking ahead to Game 3 on Wednesday night? Only Carlisle knows, but everyone was acknowledging this: The Pacers, for the second consecutive game, didn't come out with enough force, attitude, disposition, care — buzzwords for effort, but don't say that word, people get offended! The Pacers trailed by double figures (25-15) in the first quarter of Game 1, and were down 57-45 at halftime, and the same thing basically happened in Game 2: They trailed by double figures early in the second quarter (33-23), and then the game got ugly. The Thunder led 52-29 before halftime, and the Pacers never got closer than 13. 'Another bad first half,' Carlisle said, and no need to wonder if this was 100% truth or message-sending, because it was both. 'Obviously it was a big problem.' Haliburton was ineffective in the first half on both nights. Game 1: Six points, three assists, three turnovers. Game 2: Three points, three assists, two turnovers. 'I think I've had two really poor first halves,' Haliburton said after Game 2. 'I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games.' Haliburton's game-winner in Game 1 overshadowed a game where he had 14 points and six assists, well below his season averages of 18.6 ppg and 9.2 apg, and his hot fourth quarter in Game 2 allowed him to finish with 17 points on a night where, as I said, it was more fizzle than sizzle: 17 points, three rebounds, six assists and five turnovers, tied for his most through 18 playoff games. 'I had some really dumb turnovers tonight,' Haliburton said. 'They're kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They're giving me different looks.' It can be confusing, especially against a physical and aggressive menace like Lu Dort, but Haliburton seemed to figure something out there in the fourth quarter. It could bode well for the Pacers, who come back to Downtown Indianapolis having stolen homecourt advantage from the heavily favored Thunder thanks to that Game 1 victory. If Haliburton figured something out, and it carries over to Game 3, maybe we get this: Abracadabra! If not, if the poor starts carry over, if the Thunder's overall defensive domination continues, we could get this: Poof. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.

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