Cooper Flagg offers brutally honest take on his NBA Summer League debut: 'One of the worst games of my life'

Cooper Flagg had some ups early and some downs late in his professional debut on Thursday night with the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Summer League. With his team still getting the win, though, he knows that leaves room for him to improve over the next week and a half in Vegas.

Flagg, the No. 1 pick from the 2025 NBA Draft last month, spoke about his performance in the 87-85 win for the Mavericks over the Los Angeles Lakers last night at Summer League. He knows it wasn’t his best outing individually, tabbing it as “one of the worst games of (his) life,” but that it was okay considering they opened up with a win in Sin City.

“Not up to my standard. But, I’m going to regroup. I’m going to be alright,” Flagg said postgame with ESPN. “You know, it’s a new feeling, new environment, new teammates. But, you know, the guys held it down. Miles (Kelly), Ryan (Nembhard) – they were amazing tonight, Max (Lewis). They were great tonight so you know, just, you know, they had my back. You know, I didn’t have my best game, but I’m just going to keep growing going forward.

“…I mean, you know, coaches had a lot of confidence in me. They’ve been telling me they want me to, you know, experiment, try some new things. I was trying to be aggressive. You know, that’s new for me too, you know,” said Flagg to the media afterwards. “I would say that might be one of the worst games of my life, but we got the win, so that’s what really matters to me…I’m just glad we got the win.”

Flagg, in 32 minutes played, put up 10 points (5-21 FG, 0-5 3PT), six rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a block in the win over LA. However, he wouldn’t score in the second half, finishing at 23.8% shooting overall while missing all of his three-pointers and his lone free throw. Still, Dallas won the game over that second half, specifically in the third, with the team getting good performances out of Nembhard (21 points, five assists) and Kelly (17 points, four rebounds).”

Not much is to be taken out of game one, especially in Summer League of all places. That said, the exhibition-style game gave Flagg a look at how different the next level will be, with plenty of adapting to still come in his game.

“I mean, it’s just a different game, different pace, different feel, different spacing,” Flagg said. “It’s a lot of adjustments, but we’ll be alright.”

“Just got to find a rhythm. That was really it. I just couldn’t really get into a rhythm. You know, it’s a different environment,” Flagg said. “You know, I think it’s obviously very different from college, probably very different from what, you know, the real NBA is going to be like. So, you know, just trying to find a rhythm, you know, figure it out.”

The first game for Flagg had a little of everything in the win, with a few highlights, a filled-out box score, but also several missed shots. He’ll now look to have, in his opinion, a better outing when he takes the floor again against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday on ESPN at 4 p.m. ET.

“I’m not necessarily worried, but obviously, just not happy with how it went,” Flagg said. “But, you know, the end of the day, we did get the win, so happy with that.”