Growing up, Cooper Flagg went nearly undefeated in high school and AAU basketball. During his single season with the Duke Blue Devils, he only lost four out of 37 games. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and will likely be named the league's Rookie of the Year.
However, he has never lost as much as he has this season with the Dallas Mavericks, who are currently sitting with an abysmal 24-52 overall record to their name.
"Obviously, it's been tough... Ya know, we lost four games last year. There's been times in the season where it's been really mentally taxing on me, just not having the success that I would've hoped for," Flagg said when he joined The Pat McAfee Show.
Despite the fact that Flagg has averaged 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game, the Mavs simply haven't been able to figure out how to build on his success.
"Obviously, we've had a lot of injuries and a lot of unfortunate things that happened throughout the year, but yeah, it's obviously not been ideal," Flagg added.
Cooper Flagg understandably disappointed in 1st year with Mavs
While the team's record is about as bad as one can get, especially after adding a superstar like Flagg to the roster, the former Blue Devil has been able to find the silver lining in all of it.
"I've had growth along the way, and I've had to get better, learn on the fly, but definitely not the start I would've looked for. Hopefully, eventually, I'll be able to look back on it and know that I was able to learn a lot from it."
"I've had growth along the way, and I've had to get better and learn on the fly. ... Hopefully eventually I'll be able to look back on it, and know I was able to learn a lot from it." 💪
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 1, 2026
Mavs forward Cooper Flagg gives his overall thoughts on his rookie season 🏀
(via… pic.twitter.com/essN4aBnw7
With just six games remaining in the regular season (which will be the end of Dallas's season as the Mavericks were a far cry from qualifying for the Playoffs), Flagg will finish his rookie season with a well-under-.500 record to his name for the first time in his life.
It's completely understandable why Flagg would categorize the season as disappointing, despite all of his personal success this year, and it is extremely impressive that he has still been able to find positives for his rookie year.