After becoming Rookie of the Year, Cooper Flagg has a chance to become the first player since Luka Doncic to make All-NBA in his second season.
DALLAS - Cooper Flagg has already collected the awards available to a first-year player. Rookie of the Year, unanimous All-Rookie First Team and a season that placed him in company with Michael Jordan as the only rookies since 1984-85 to lead their teams in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
The next rung on the ladder is considerably harder to reach and oddsmakers think he has a real shot at it. FanDuel has Flagg at +500 to make an All-NBA team this season, which translates to roughly a 17 percent implied probability.
The board itself puts his position in context. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo sit atop the market as heavy favorites, followed by Victor Wembanyama, Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards. Flagg lands at +500 alongside Pascal Siakam, just behind Evan Mobley at +470 and Jalen Duren at +420 and just ahead of Stephon Castle and Deni Avdija at +550. He is priced above established names such as Joel Embiid at +600, LaMelo Ball and Paolo Banchero at +650 and LeBron James at +750.
For a player entering his second season, that placement is remarkable. All-NBA is not a young player's award. It recognizes the 15 best players in the league regardless of position and the vast majority of those spots belong to established stars in their primes.
Flagg turns 20 in December.
Only 15 players have made an All-NBA team in their sophomore season since 1989 and just seven of those arrived on the heels of a Rookie of the Year campaign. That list is David Robinson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Brandon Roy, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and Luka Doncic, a group stacked with MVP winners and Hall of Famers. Flagg is trying to become the first to do it since Doncic in 2019-20.
Flagg averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals as a rookie while carrying an enormous offensive burden on a team without Kyrie Irving. He became the first teenager in league history to score 50 points in a game. Those are not rookie numbers dressed up by context. They are legitimate two-way star numbers produced by a teenager on a bad team.
The 15 available spots get claimed quickly by the names at the top of that board, with a returning Tyrese Haliburton also in the mix. Voters likewise tend to reward players on winning teams and Dallas is projected by most outlets to finish outside the playoff picture.
That last part might be the biggest obstacle. Individual brilliance rarely earns an All-NBA nod on a lottery team. Flagg likely needs the Mavericks to be competitive, which is why Irving's return matters to his individual case as much as it does to the standings.
Making First Team is a different conversation entirely. FanDuel has Flagg at +8000 for that, which is the market saying it would take a genuine MVP-caliber leap. All-NBA in any form is the achievement worth chasing this season and at +500, the odds suggest it would not be a shock.
