Duke's Cooper Flagg draws eye-opening Grant Hill comparison
12/16/2024 12:31 PM
Duke Blue Devils freshman Cooper Flagg has been the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft since before he even committed to play in Durham. Now that he has a few months of Duke basketball under his belt, not much has changed.
ESPN’s Jeremy Woo spoke with NBA executives who have been monitoring the still-17-year-old’s development for a few years and one comparison stood out, perhaps because it’s to another Blue Devil legend.
“I kind of like the Grant Hill comp,” an Eastern Conference scout said of Flagg. “Grant, I don’t think was a great shooter to start. Could get to his 12-15 footer, play downhill, could finish well. I like the frame.”
“Cooper is maybe a little bigger,” the scout continued. “[Hill] had a path to being impactful offensively in situations that didn’t require creating space/shotmaking. Grant, maybe a better raw athlete.”
Through 10 games with Duke, Flagg is averaging 15.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. He hasn’t shot well from three so far, but as an Eastern Conference general manager pointed out, that doesn’t matter yet.
“If he couldn’t score a lick and was just a finisher and transition guy, he’d still be a top-10 pick,” they said.
Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg draws wide range of NBA comps
Maybe the most exciting sign for Flagg’s NBA prospects is that his comps didn’t end with Hill. They covered a wide range of NBA greats, no two exactly alike.
Andrei Kirilenko, Jayson Tatum, Franz Wagner, Andre Iguodala and Aaron Gordon all came up among NBA scouts and executives as well. And where those comps have changed over the years, it’s because Flagg has gotten better.
“Two years ago, the shot blocking made me think of Kirilenko. Now that I’ve watched him more under the microscope, no way,” a Western Conference executive said. “[Flagg] is comfortable initiating offense when he needs to. Kirilenko didn’t have that. [Also], he has all the tools to be a great defender, but who is a great 6-9, 215-pound, great defensive forward right now at the NBA level? Is Flagg destined to be on All-Defensive teams?”
As for Gordon and Wagner, there are similarities, but Flagg has more to offer.
“[Flagg] is really a forward more than a wing. Some guys you could compare him to at that position — Gordon, Wagner, they don’t all have the same physical tools,” another GM said. “Gordon as a baseline is good … but there seems to be a higher range where he could go on offense.”
Flagg will take the court for the Blue Devils again on Tuesday night when Duke hosts George Mason at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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