Cooper Flagg Credits Kevin Durant for Offensive Growth

After falling to the Houston Rockets by 18 points in their first of two preseason matchups in Macao, China, reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg spoke about adding to his offensive game.

And according to Flagg, future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant has provided some inspiration. During the 135-117 loss on Friday, Flagg finished with 19 points and six rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting in 19 minutes of play.

After the game, Flagg was asked if he worked on his mid post fade away in the offseason.

“Yeah, I think so. Just being comfortable getting to my spots, and obviously somebody like KD, I feel like I’ve learned a lot from him just playing against him over the years,” said Flagg.

“Just getting to your spots and playing at a slow pace. So that’s definitely something I worked on, the spots that I like to get to on the court.”

Last season, Flagg averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists across 70 games for Dallas in his rookie season. Those numbers were good enough to beat Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel for the Rookie of the Year award, and becoming the third recipient of that award in Mavericks’ history, joining Jason Kidd and Luka Doncic.

His head coach Dusty May was asked about maximizing is time with Cooper and not skipping steps.

“100%. You’re balancing what he could be with not skipping steps. I thought he played really well tonight: his activity, his anticipation defensively. And we’re not running much stuff for him right now. We’re playing in the flow,” said May.

“We’re still trying to learn how to play the play after the play better. But yeah, there’s a responsibility on all of us, because with any great player, their success is determined by everyone around them. So, all of us being better teammates, better players, better coaches will contribute to him maximizing his potential. We don’t take it for granted. This is a big responsibility, to help him in his evolution into being one of the best.”

Later in his postgame interview Flagg was asked about the 50 plus three they put against the Rockets.

“Definitely. Yeah. I think obviously we have a different identity, different culture. We’re trying to play faster, sharing the ball more. So, I think naturally we’re going to fall into some more threes, and some easier ones too,” Flagg said.

“I think just passing the ball and kind of just playing through the pass a little bit more. So, I think we’ll definitely fall into some more threes, but I think we also just have a lot of three-point shooters, guys that are comfortable stepping in and knocking shots down.”