5 intriguing players for Jazz fans in March Madness: Cooper Flagg, Derik Queen, V.J. Edgecombe

New York Times

20-03-2025

Utah Jazz fans, the madness is finally here.
The NCAA Tournament starts in earnest Thursday morning, with the first weekend bringing wall-to-wall action. With a loss to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the Jazz currently hold the second-best lottery odds in the league. That's a good thing because there will be plenty of talent from which to choose.
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We have five players to profile. All are expected to be prime options for the Jazz, wherever they fall in the draft, with their floor currently in the top six picks. These five players are all in the tournament, which means I did not profile projected No. 2 pick Dylan Harper, or his Rutgers teammate, Ace Bailey, who is a projected top-five pick.
So, here goes, and I think we all know which player will be profiled first.
What's to like: Flagg is not only the best prospect in the draft, he was the best player in college basketball this season. Those two do not always go hand-in-hand. Flagg is a rare prospect who has the best ceiling of anyone in the draft coupled with the highest floor. He's a two-way prospect by definition, with an offensive game that seems to improve almost every time he's on the floor.
One general manager described Flagg as a peak version of Andrei Kirilenko on steroids. Jazz fans who remember the 2004 version of Kirilenko know this is a player who has a chance to make All-Star teams yearly and All-NBA teams regularly. I would go a step further than Kirilenko with Flagg: I think he has a chance to be another Kawhi Leonard. Flagg's ability to positively affect almost every possession of a game on both sides of the floor is unmatched in this draft. He's put up impressive numbers at Duke, but his impact goes well beyond the stat sheet. His superpower is a maniacal ability and his desire to compete on every possession, and an ability to make big plays in big moments. He is, without question, the prize of this draft class, and someone who is going to be plug-and-play for whoever drafts him from day one.
What's the concern: I think Flagg will be a superstar, but he may not be the traditional superstar you can throw the ball to in the last moments of a game and have him create a bucket for you. He's going to dominate games in the first 43 minutes. He may not dominate them offensively in the last five minutes. Now, he could develop that skill, which if he does, could one day put him in the conversation for best player in the world. But he doesn't necessarily have that skill right now. If you draft him, you might need to go out and find the guy with the closing skill offensively. But, if that's the only concern a team has with a prospect, you're doing well.
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What's to like: People throw around the word athleticism a little too freely at times. With Edgecombe, it fits. He is a true five-percent athlete, much like the Thompson twins (Amen and Ausar) were when they entered the league. Edgecombe is the best athlete in the draft, and more impressively he knows how to use it. He has an explosive first step off the dribble to get into the lane, and he can hang and draw fouls. If you watch Baylor, you will see how he can get to his spots off the bounce with limited spacing around him, you can imagine him being a lot more difficult to guard in NBA spacing with freedom of movement rules.
Edgecombe competed defensively this season, and maybe most importantly, has been a different player during the Big 12 conference season. He went from struggling in November and December to playing at a star level in January and beyond.
What's the concern: The skillset needs to improve. His shooting, his passing and most importantly, his ballhandling. If he works hard at his shooting, that likely improves. The playmaking for others is a little more difficult. He's going to have to really work on the ballhandling, and that's likely to be his swing skill. If all three improve, he's going to be a monster offensively, because his athleticism is truly game-changing.
What's to like: We're fudging just a tad with Johnson, because his Texas team is no longer alive after losing to Xavier on Wednesday night in the First Four. However, we are including Johnson because he still made the NCAA Tournament.
Johnson might be the most skilled three-level guard in the draft, including Harper. He's a terrific ballhandler. His contested shotmaking is as good as anyone in the draft not named Ace Bailey. He is an amazing shotmaker and he combines that with elite-level footwork. He gets to his spots off the dribble. He's a good pick-and-roll player. He is capable of putting pressure on the rim off the dribble.
🧵 Quick thread on Tre Johnson's scoring and playmaking process vs. Xavier:
His stats looked pretty good, but I thought he had a tough overall game vs. Xavier that was held up by brief scoring spurts.
That's the good thing about Tre, though: he can always get hot, and he make… pic.twitter.com/lu56yEmLAl
— Wilko (@wilkomcv) March 20, 2025
Watching this clip from Wednesday night, you can see the diversity of the offensive abilities. In the clip he takes a difficult shot, but he's so talented he can knock it down. He has deep range that demands he be guarded far from the hoop, which gives him more space to do his thing off the dribble. He's unique for a ball-in-hand player because he's almost equally good at playing off the ball. He's a willing and competent defender. He's someone who could put it all together and become quite the scorer at the NBA level. He has a chance to be an engine offensively.
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What's the concern: Johnson is a potential top-five pick, but for all of his talent, he is close to the same player now that he was in November. Now, that's a terrific player, but you want to move forward and not stagnate, even if for only six months.
So, Johnson's primary weakness coming into school — his shot diet — is still his primary weakness. Like Bailey, he's a terrific contested shotmaker. Unlike Bailey, Johnson is good enough off the dribble that he shouldn't have to settle for contested shots. So, the hope here is that a solid team with a solid infrastructure drafts Johnson, because that team will be tasked with ridding him of some bad habits.
What's to like: The skillset is so tantalizing that it's becoming impossible to overlook him, even with some significant flaws. There aren't many centers who are three-level creators, but Queen is one of them. He handles the ball like a guard. He has terrific touch around the basket. His footwork is immaculate. He's a great rebounder, and he is an elite passer. He can run both ends of a pick-and-roll, which is rare for someone his size. He can grab a rebound and take the ball the length of the floor. He's just an insane offensive talent in almost every way imaginable. He reminds me of … oh, goodness, I don't want to say his name … (cough, Nikola Jokić, cough) …
What's the concern: There's always a concern. If you draft him, you better build an elite defensive infrastructure around him, because Queen isn't a great defender. He's not going to protect the rim, and he's not going to guard on the perimeter. You're going to have to put him in a lot of drop coverage, and you will need to have to have a ton of good defenders around him to mask his flaws. Now, this is not impossible, because the Denver Nuggets did just that around Jokić in 2023 and won a title, and the Golden State Warriors did that around Stephen Curry and won a bunch of titles. So, it is possible. It just has to be worth it, which means Queen would have to develop offensively.
What's to like: Knueppel has a complete offensive skillset. He's a pedestrian athlete but then you watch him play, and it all makes sense. He has an underrated first step that allows him to get to his spots off the dribble. He's a terrific pick-and-roll player. He can play on or off the basketball. He can post smaller defenders. He is a terrific shooter. He's a better finisher than he looks. His footwork is ridiculously good. To top it off, he's a great passer and a great rebounder for his size.
He became the No. 1 option when Flagg sprained his ankle in the ACC Tournament and he became dominant. He did the same in high school and we all thought he would struggle to adapt to increased athleticism in college. So, don't bet against him at the NBA level. He's going to be just fine.
What's the concern: What if he isn't just fine athletically at the NBA level? The thought here is that he is too skilled with too high of a basketball IQ to not be just fine. But there is always a chance. And while Knueppel has been better than advertised defensively at Duke, he has Flagg, Sion James and Khaman Maluach (the best defensive big man in the draft) around him. He likely won't have those kinds of defensive teammates around him at his initial NBA stop, so the thought here is that he will need to defend more in space and more on an island at the NBA level.
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(Photo of Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)