Cooper Flag: Three Best Templates for the Future!

As the most popular No. 1 pick this year, Cooper Flag is probably the most mature potential newcomer at the moment. The white forward produced by Duke has excellent physical talent, and has quite old-school game interpretation, coupled with other outstanding highlights, which ultimately makes him stand out among a group of young rookies.

With this series of prerequisite conditions, let's discuss the No. 1 pick who has not yet been elected as the No. 1 pick, to see how his future training direction will be, and what kind of template players can be found for him in the league!

The first template player: Scotty Pippen

Judging from the current draft report, the most appropriate candidate for Flag comes from Hall of Fame star Pippen.

The Bulls' champion forward is basically the best ball-handling forward player of his time and the best defender in league history. He was selected into the best defensive team ten times in his career, was selected into the All-Star lineup seven times, and joined forces with Michael Jordan to win six championship trophys.

From the perspective of player style, Pippen's defensive diversity and oppressiveness to the ball holder are surprisingly similar to Flag. The two are not inferior in rebounding ability, and their figures are also very similar.

From the offensive end, Pippen and Flag are also the top second ball holding point and have excellent passing vision. Pippen averaged 5.2 assists per game throughout his career. If it were in the fast-paced small ball era today, this assist data might be higher. In terms of scoring data, he averaged 16.1 points in his career and 17.7 points during his time with the Bulls.

Thanks to his stable independent offensive ability, although he is by Jordan, he is still one of the greatest second-in-commands in the history of the league.

In the 1993-94 season, Jordan chose to leave the field temporarily. Pippen averaged 22 points per game and led the Bulls to the top three record in the Eastern Conference, ranking third in the MVP list. Although there is some gap between the top level, it is enough to prove Pippen's comprehensiveness in any lineup, which is exactly Flag's most representative advantage in the future. Judging from the current content of the game, his potential advantages on both offense and defense are obvious enough to make him a top pirated player who is suitable for any team, any lineup, or any player.

The second template player: Scotty Barnes

Flag's outstanding physical fitness and the qualities of a ball forward are the biggest reasons why he can stand out among this rookie.

In contrast, although Barnes is young, he has gradually developed towards a ball-handling forward. Due to the sluggish performance of the Raptors in recent years, Barnes' progress is often easily overlooked. Judging from the content of the game, the biggest common point between the two comes from their ability to defend their opponents in almost five positions on the field.

In terms of the team's positioning diversity, according to statistics, Barnes has played in three different positions in the team in the previous four years. Of course, even though he has been selected as the All-Star, his career average of 17.1 points per game is not bad, but judging from the team's expected goals, Barnes has not yet fully grown into the team's main attack core at this stage.

Another thing, his three-point shooting percentage is only 30%, and his outside firepower is not yet fully developed. Therefore, referring to Barnes' development path, this may be Flag's future preparatory route.

And in this mode where scores and outside firepower cannot be fully converted, the Barnes template is not necessarily a possible final sample. But overall, as a ball-handling forward with excellent figure and strong defense, the similarity between Barnes and Flag is still very clear.

The third template player: Jason Tatum

As the star of the Celtics and also from Duke University, Tatum is also one of the most commonly discussed subjects compared to Flag.

From the body shape, Tatum and Flag are also very similar, and both of them are all-around large wing ball holding points.

Referring to Tatum's current career, although scoring and creative ability is his biggest selling point at this stage, his advantages also lie in his organizational ability, rebounding and comprehensive defensive value, which are also the key to the Celtics being able to achieve outstanding results in recent years. The focus is on the evolution of defense and passing tandem, and this season's average assists reached a career high of 6 times.

Especially in the last season's playoff championship journey, Tatum started out not only limited to the team's scoring core, but also a comprehensive team benchmark. This link is also the direct reason why the Celtics failed to return in the playoffs for many years and finally won the championship successfully last season.

As for Flag, his game influence also comes from many abilities, but compared to Tatum's independent offense, Flag's most prominent part may be on the defensive end. Before entering university, the outside world was worried about whether he had independent offense and outside projection. But these concerns were quickly answered in their freshman season, averaging 19.2 points per game and shooting from outside to 38.5%.

After entering the NBA stage in the future, if Flag can continue such offensive performance, he will have a chance to become the next Jason Tatum under the premise of gradually developing defense.