Rashad McCants On Cooper Flagg: Too Much, Too Soon?

Just when you think it’s safe out there, former UNC star Rashad McCants pops up again. When he’s not comparing UNC to a prison, or accusing Roy Williams of being fully aware of the so-called paper classes at UNC, or claiming that …“I have a check being written to me from the University of North Carolina for over $10 million due to the exploitation of me as a player and the lack of education that I received. The NCAA has a check for me for over $300 million to help me facilitate these sports education programs across the country,” or getting dumped by a Kardashian, he’s occasionally an interesting person and on exceedingly rare occasions, he has interesting things to say.

Take his comments on former Duke star and hotshot Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg. Here’s what McCants had to say about Flagg and young NBA players in general:

“I’m not really big on the freshmen coming out and the young guys because they’re underdeveloped. They’re so underdeveloped and so overhyped…Flagg doesn’t have to work for his position. He’s not proven though, at all. I mean Kobe Bryant had to sit two years under Del Harris based on his head coach not believing in playing first or second year guys. But it helped him a lot.

“Yet, when you come in with an expectation, there’s going to be disappointments. You can exceed those expectations, or you cannot. That puts more pressure on young kids than they expect themselves to just come in and not have any restrictions or road blocks.” 

He’s partly right, because the league has certainly changed enormously. Players now get there as quickly as possible and teams factor youth in and do more to train young players than they used to, including a much more liberal use of the G-League, which was not available during Bryant’s rookie season.

Also, consider who the Lakers had in Kobe’s rookie season:

• Derek Fisher
• George McCloud
• Eddie Jones
• Byron Scott
• Nick Van Exel
• Robert Horry
• Jerome Kersey
• Larry Krystkowiak
• Elden Campbell
• Shaquille O’Neal

Rookie Bryant had to beat out five quality guards on a team that won 56 games.

Now look at the Mavericks and who Flagg has to compete with for minutes:

• Ryan Nemhard
• Brandon Williams
• D’Angelo Russell
• Max Christie
• Caleb Martin
• Klay Thompson
• Miles Kelly
• Naji Marshall
• PJ Washington
• Matthew Cleveland
• Olivier Maxence Prosper
• Daniel Gafford
• Dwight Powell
• Moussa Cisse
• Dereck Lively
• Anthony Davis

We didn’t list Kyrie Irving because he’s out with an injury and will be for some time. Even so, other than Davis, Lively, Washington and possibly Thompson, who on that roster, on a team that just finished 39-43, who is better than Flagg right now?

McCants has a basic point and he’s not wrong. The league has changed.

There’s one other point that should be mentioned and that’s maturity. While Bryant emerged as a tremendous talent, he had a very difficult time emotionally for his first couple of years in the league. Bryant didn’t get along well with his teammates and had no idea how to bond with them. You can look up the stories for yourself, but suffice it to say he struggled emotionally for a while before he matured.

We’re not saying that Cooper Flagg won’t struggle competitively or emotionally. He’ll certainly struggle to adapt to the league. Almost every rookie does. And we remember the stories of Kevin Garnett sitting in hotel rooms alone while his older teammates went out to bars and strip clubs where he could not legally go. It’s not easy being a teenager on the road in the NBA. There are video games, but still, hotel rooms get pretty boring pretty fast.

And we’re certainly not saying that Flagg will be better than Bryant. He is a strikingly mature talent though who has mastered most aspects of the game at the age of 18 and he’s in a very different sort of situation than Bryant was.

He’s not going to start because he’s a prized rookie talent, although he is that. He’s going to start because the Mavericks need help and he’s the player on the roster who is most likely to provide it.

Unlike the Lakers, the Mavericks can’t afford to wait.