Plus, Flagg has always been lauded as having an exceptionally high bball iq. I’ve heard plenty of stories of how even in highschool he was able to implement new things super quickly.

They could be a career NBA player if they could hit 39% on a spot up 3 and stay in front of someone

i am a prime example of this lol. my handle looks pretty nice when i’m unguarded just fucking around. but get me in a pickup game and i’m getting my shit ripped like every other possession it’s so sorry 😭😭

i learned recently if i get my chest/shoulders closer to the ground when i drive it helps me keep my dribble lower and people can’t rip me quite as easy. i still fuck up a lot lol. much to learn i guess. 

But you practiced Game Speed and got to the NBA, right?

My handles were awful but I can read offense well. Managed to keep me on the court.

But man, watching players now. Dudes can’t even see game speed reads and options. All they do is tween tween hesi step back.

Plus getting the reps and film is also important. It allows them to show him how/when/where to improve against different types of NBA defenders. Not all defensive assignments are in a vacuum.

I think it was the right move. There’s no expectations on winning this season. Falls fans will be extremely sympathetic. There’s probably no better time to do your learning. Kyrie will get the point duties back next year so let Flagg get a whole pile of reps in now. 

It’s a valid argument. We don’t see Flagg in practice every day so we didn’t know how he would respond to growing pains. That’s why coaches get paid the big bucks.

Jason Kidd is probably also an excellent guy to learn from to round out your game.

Yea I don’t think there are any real benefits from easing a guy of Coop’s pedigree into anything. Dallas wasn’t winning shit this year regardless of what the media said, the only thing that would’ve stunted his growth was playing him off-ball while watching DLo dribble the air out of the basketball.

I don’t think he’ll ever be a true point guard but he needed those reps to face different POA coverages and learn how to attack them. I get protecting someone who may not be 100% ready and needs to build confidence but Coop wasn’t that guy. NBA ready from day 1, throw him into the fire and let him grow.

All depends on the mental makeup of the player. They must have decided Coop was built for it.

Another counter argument was that they were in win-now mode, but that changed after Nico was fired and they traded AD.

There is also Giannis as his shining example of why that works.

Honestly throwing someone into the fire is the best way for them to learn as long as you give them the right coaching and reinforcement, even works well in some job fields as well too.

I think losing firsthand will make ANY competitive rookie feel terrible, but will experience more progress than someone who is good but weak willed Coop is a good AND a competitive rookie. Kidd knows that, and he threw him headfirst into Prime Wemby as a PG (which is absurd tbh lmao) I stand by my opinion since day 1 that Kidd did the right thing

You fk a player’s confidence by benching him, instead of giving him full reign to make mistakes.

it’s a fair argument, but i imagine jason kidd evaluated the kid’s mental toughness and determined flagg had the chops to deal with the growing pains and come out better for it

yeah flagg seems like a confident enough guy and frankly a fast enough learner that some early growing pains didn’t shake him as much as some worried. i’m sure the mavs coaches obviously had reason to believe he’d adapt when they see him in practice every day. i think keeping young players confident is an underrated aspect of coaching too. if you’re gonna throw someone into the fire, you have to make sure they’re aware that fucking up sometimes is expected and okay. having uplifting teammates who don’t grumble when the rookie messes up is a big part of that too. seems like the mavs have some good dudes on their team all things considered. should be pretty interesting to see their path over the next few years.

Yeah, as soon as I saw Kidd made the decision to run cooper at PG, I knew he was gunning to spreedrun the giannis development with someone not as raw of a recruit, looks like it’s working out well so far

This made Giannis develop into a monster, everyone pokes fun whenever Jason Kidd tries to experiment but his rationality is sound. Let’s give a developing star some real reps and we might be rewarded for taking some risks. The season’s awash, let’s develop our talent instead

The PG experiment worked but Kidd also severely messed up Giannis’ jumpshot. He had his highest 3pt % his rookie year and his jump shot technique was so much more fluid back then. Obviously he still turned out ok but what could have been if they never butchered his confidence and form…

Its something AD has not developed because he was pigeon holed as a lob threat guy even tho he do seem to have the skillset to be a playmaking bigman. By the time Lakers tried him as a focal point I think it was too late.

Well they were getting stick for doing it right at the start of the season when the Mavs were absolutely trying to win. It’s only after AD got injured and then traded that they fully committed to the tank

I don’t really like Nick Nurse but giving Edgecombe minutes at PG is going to be helpful in the future.

hopefully 🤞

Livelys health is gonna be really important for the ceiling of the team. If he can stay healthy and get back into the groove of being a good switchable center that would be a huge plus.

I support shitting on him but unfortunately for any of his haters, including me, he has proven himself to be a very good coach. How many coaches can say they are elite at youth development and good enough to take a 5th seed to the Finals?

Even if he does something I agree with, once in the blue, ima still shit on Kidd any chance.

I’m sorry but Dallas should be die hard for Kidd man. The man’s helped win a championship in his twilight years, and two conference showings and a finals run as coach. He straight up out coaches people with his experimental lineups and he did this with Dwight Powell as a starting C for almost 5 years because Porzingis was perennial afk

I’ll never forget when he brought in Frank N*likina to be a defensive stopper against Booker and it worked

He’s a mediocre regular season coach and a very good playoff coach His experiments at regular season comes into fruition come playoff time Alas, that did not translate this season

what exactly has he done wrong with us?

I meant try explaining this to the Mavs subreddit. They were bitching and moaning about nothing the entire first part of the season.

I don’t have much of an opinion either way on Flagg’s move but the Giannis comparisons never sat right to me, he had played PG in the past and didn’t really have a nailed-on position coming into the league. A lot of what he was doing his first few years was just flinging shit at a wall and seeing what stuck - the PG move was one that stuck.

The more valid comparison to me seems like Amen Thompson, who was definitely not a PG coming in but looked like he could develop the skill set and got reps accordingly when the team needed it.

Really? I got downvoted in this sub for agreeing with Kidd when it happened.

It was only when Flagg started putting up number after adjusting did folks here started changing their minds.

AD did play, or at least he tried to. Kyrie would’ve come back if AD had kept them competitive coming into 2026.

Does the power to predict injuries come packaged with your condescending attitude or are they separate?

SGA, forward…? Dude is a Point Guard, Shooting Guard at worst. Brown isn’t the best player for the Celtics, Tatum was and Tatum is definitely not on the tier of an SGA, Lebron, Curry etc but in the next tier of playmaker and gets a massive amount of hockey assists

And the Pelicans did not win a ring with AD He’s the #2 on Lakers so that statement still holds up

The ends justifies the means. But at this point it may be too late to train him.

No, Spurs had Wemby running point and it was a head scratcher for most of us at the time.

Oh it sure did, just say you were not aware of it.

I’m seeing a lot of stuff about Jason Kidd. My comment isn’t limited to the LeBron comment it’s just what I’m seeing in the media. But like you said, people don’t think on this site so I can understand why your question is so reductionist

i want 30 bwill isos a game personally