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Cooper Flagg Gets Legendary Comparison Ahead of NBA Draft Lottery

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated May 12, 2025 8:50 AM ET

For the 14 teams that failed to qualify for the NBA playoffs, Monday will be a franchise-altering day, no matter how things play out. That's because the NBA's draft lottery will be held, which means that someone is going to come away with the No. 1 pick, and 13 others will go home bitterly disappointed. That's just how good the presumed top pick, Cooper Flagg is.

Flagg might well have been the top pick in the NBA draft back in 2024, if he'd been allowed to join the fray. Instead, he went to Duke, where he lived up to the hype by helping the Blue Devils to the national champoinship game.

Along the way, Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists and earned the AP's national player of the year honors, as well as the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award. He was, unquestionably, the best player in college basketball as a freshman.

Whichever team lands him will almost immediately begin reconstructing its future around him.

What can be difficult, though, is finding a player from NBA history who fits Flagg's mold, because he is not only an outstanding scorer and playmaker, he is also one of the top defensive forwards in the game.

Scottie Pippen has frequently been mentioned as a high-end comparison, and Andrei Kirilenko on the low end. But one talent evaluator goes further back in the archives to find the right comp.

'To me, it is John Havlicek," he said.

Havlicek, of course, is a Hall of Famer and a legend of the league who averaged 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists. He spent much of his early career as a sixth man in the 1960s, pioneering the importance of the role, but as the old Celtics retired and Havlicek became the centerpiece, he had a three-year run in which he showed what he could do: From 1970-72, Havlicek averaged 26.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists.

"That's what I see with Cooper," the exec said. "He's a team guy. He can score on the perimeter, he can get into the paint and score, he can back you down. Havlicek did those things, he was just an incredibly strong SOB, way stronger than he looked. He could pass the ball, you could run everything through him. He had great vision. That's what I see in Cooper, too.

"And there's the defense. Havlicek was one of the best wing defenders in his time. That's what Flagg is going to be, too. And he wins. They both just win."

The NBA draft lottery will be held on Monday night in Chicago before the start of the annual predraft combine, at 7 p.m. ET.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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