COOPER Flagg

Flagg's first year was a workload right out of the gate: 70 games played, 33.5 minutes a night, 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks. He shot 46.8 percent from the field, 29.5 percent from three and 82.7 percent at the line, with a true shooting mark of 54.8 percent on a 26.4 usage rate. He also turned it over 2.3 times a game, the cost of being handed the ball that often as a teenager. His plus-minus sat at minus-3.8 for the season, a reminder that volume scoring and winning plus-minus don't always line up in year one. Those numbers are now the bar for year two in Dallas.

Flagg is not on the injury report heading into the new season. He showed up on the day-to-day list on October 14 with a rest-related designation, carried a day-to-day tag again on October 16, and was cleared that same day. There's no lingering issue tied to those entries, just normal in-season maintenance before the schedule gets heavy. For a player who logged 33.5 minutes a night as a rookie, staying off the actual injury report is the headline here. Dallas will take every clean week it can get with Flagg, given how much the offense is built to run through him.

Flagg's last three outings tell three different stories. Against Atlanta on October 16, he put up 26 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists in 29.8 minutes, but Dallas lost and he finished at minus-10. Against Houston on October 11, he found more of a pass-first rhythm with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists in 25.1 minutes in a win, even with a minus-9 mark. Two days before that, also against Houston, he scored 19 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists in just 19.0 minutes in a loss. The rebounding and playmaking have carried over from his rookie year; the minutes have been lighter so far.

Some of Flagg's rookie-year numbers jump off the page. On April 5 against the Lakers, he dropped 45 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists in 38.5 minutes in a win, plus-11 for the night. Two days earlier against Orlando, he scored 51 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 33.5 minutes, though Dallas lost that one. He also had a 33-point, 6-rebound, 5-assist game against San Antonio on April 10, and an 11-point, 11-rebound, 6-assist line against Phoenix on April 8. Those kinds of nights, mixed into a 70-game, 21.0-point season average, are why the Mavericks moved fast on his option.

Flagg is a constant name in Mavericks notes columns right now. Brian Windhorst's October 12 piece grouped Flagg with Irving and Risacher alongside a team trip to China. An October 1 Mavericks notes roundup listed Flagg alongside May, Johnson, Risacher and de Larrea. A separate October 3 notes piece from Grant Afseth covered Washington, Christie, Johnson and Biberovic without naming Flagg directly, a sign the beat is watching the whole roster, not just its young star. None of these are roster-move rumors, just the usual notebook coverage that comes with training camp.