As we approach the halfway point of his rookie season, Cooper Flagg has racked up hardware, but there is always worry about a plateau in performance.
No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg is the betting favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award having already swept Western Conference Rookie of the Month honors (though Kon Knueppel has as well in the East), but as with any teenager in the NBA - or any young player for that matter - you have to worry about a performance plateau.
In other words ... hitting the dreaded "Rookie Wall."
Flagg is averaging 18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists in a tiresome 34 minutes of action per game. Though he's electrified with many high-scoring outings and a reel of highlight dunks, there remain holes in his game - such as his sub-30 percent three-ball - that teams will learn how to key-in on.
In the Mavs' last game, Flagg posted a quiet 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting (0-2 from three-point range). He chipped in admirably with seven rebounds and six assists, but the slow scoring output made an impression on head coach Jason Kidd in how the rookie has begun feeling the brunt of a long season.
“Again it’s not always going to be what you’re not want. You’re not always going to score 30 every night," Kidd said about Flagg. "He got in foul trouble early and I thought the maturity to find ways to do other things for his teammates.”
So, about this wall? Kidd said Flagg has to meet with it's inevitability at some point throughout this stellar debut.
“He’s gotta touch it. He’s gotta rub it and hold it. He’s gotta embrace it. That’s just a mental thing," the coach said. "For the great ones, they touch it.”
Flagg's teammates also believe that it's a natural progression of any NBA player's first season.
"It can be a lot," Anthony Davis said, acknowledging how rookies are more familiar with 38-game seasons in college instead of the NBA's 82-game grind. "Obviously we're putting a lot of pressure on him, as well. We ask him to do a lot. So, it can be tough.
"I think every rookie hits it where they kinda go through a stretch, but I think he’s playing good basketball."
Flagg played 37 games en route to winning national player of the year honors in his one season at Duke last year. The Mavs' upcoming game against the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 6 will be their 37th of the season, which isn't even halfway through the schedule.
Though Davis says he's too far into his career to remember this experience as a top draft pick, fourth-year guard Max Christie recognizes that Flagg's elite pedigree has prepared him for challenges young players face.
"January, February is kinda when it starts to settle in for everybody," Christie said. "The season can start to get mundane and redundant when you're playing games everyday and the minutes are starting to wear on your, but I think he's been just fine. ... he's built for that.
"That’s why he was the No. 1 pick and that’s why he is who he is. He was built for that. He’s gonna be fine."
Though Kidd is wary of a potential drop off from the new face of the franchise, he still echoes many of the sentiments expressed by Flagg's teammates.
“He’s a winner, he wants to win," Kidd said. "I think we found out early in the season that he hadn’t lost this many games in his basketball career, but understanding the great ones are gonna lose early and it only fuels them to be better. ... He is learning what it takes to be great, not good."