LAS VEGAS — In his second game in Las Vegas, Cooper Flagg showed he was too good for Summer League, dropping 31.
The Mavericks agree and are going to shut Flagg down for the remainder of Summer League, reports Marc Stein.
This isn’t a surprise, top picks who perform well (or, sometimes even when they don’t) only tend to play a couple of Summer League games. For teams, the risk of injury to their new multi-million-dollar investment outweighs what they might learn in what can be a chaotic, relatively unstructured game. Expect a few more of these announcements.
Flagg struggled with his shot in his opener against the Lakers, shooting 5-of-21. That’s the concern heading into the season for him, the consistency of his ability to create space and knock down jumpers against NBA defenders. He looked better against the Nets, despite being hounded by a quality defender in Carter Bryant, and finished the game with 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting and 13 trips to the free throw line.
Flagg got better game-to-game, and that’s what the Mavericks wanted to see. And they have seen enough.
