Former Duke Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg has been given a comparison to LeBron James entering the new NBA season.
Former Duke Blue Devils star forward Cooper Flagg is getting ready for his second season in the NBA. Flagg, the first overall draft pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, played in 37 games as a member of the Blue Devils.
During his standout freshman season at Duke, Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. His performance in college was special, and NBA teams were tanking to try to land his services.
Playing at Duke allowed Flagg time to grow his game even more, giving him some space to develop more. The Blue Devils have produced a ton of quality NBA players over the years, with Flagg being one of the more special in recent memory.
Flagg was taken by the Dallas Mavericks with the first pick, and he excelled in the NBA. While it's still early, Flagg is seen as one of the top young players in the entire league already.
Playing in 70 games for Dallas this year, Flagg averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game. But Flagg seemed to turn things on another level over the last weeks of the season, once he started to get more comfortable in the NBA.
Ahead of the new NBA season, Flagg has been generating a ton of buzz following his impressive rookie year. This has even gotten to the point where the Mavericks star is being compared to legend LeBron James, with analyst Brian Windhorst believing that Flagg can be a top-five player this season.
Flagg will be trying to get the Mavericks back to the postseason this year, and he is good enough to make it happen. But he isn't alone in Dallas, and Flagg will be getting back another former Duke star, in Kyrie Irving, this season.
Irving missed all of last season due to a torn ACL, but the veteran is expected to return fully this season. Having the pairing of Irving and Flagg could be fun to watch, giving the Mavericks a real chance to win.
And for the Duke fans, it's a pairing of former Blue Devils, making the Mavericks a team for fans to root for. If Flagg can build off the success that he saw from the last part of the 2025-26 season, he has a chance to make the comparisons to LeBron James come true.
But this would be rare air for anyone, with James being as unique of a talent as the league has ever seen.
