Not all drafts are created equal.
The 2025 NBA Draft has a crown jewel at the top with Duke freshman Cooper Flagg living up to the hype and inspiring fanbases to create slogans for their struggling team.
- “Give the bag to Flagg”
- “Sag for Flagg”
- “In need of a hooper, tank for Cooper”
However, he led the NBA to collectively pause with a recent comment about his status in the 2025 NBA Draft. What did Flagg say, and which teams are in a position to chase after the freshman phenom after the All-Star break comes to a close?
Cooper Flagg Causes Teams To Catch Breath With Comments
Reports surfaced over the weekend that the college superstar could return to school for another season, but we are a long way from having to take that seriously.
“S***, I want to come back next year,” Flagg said in an interview with The Athletic.
Do you mean to tell me that a well-compensated star who is the big man on campus for a blue-blood program while having tremendous success is enjoying life? I’m not ruling anything out, but the recent quotes haven’t swayed my belief that he will leave Duke after one season and be a Day 1 impact guy at the highest level.
COOPER FLAGG JUST WENT COAST-TO-COAST AND POSTERIZED THE DEFENDER 😱🔥
ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Z5jcZ756ew
— ESPN (@espn) January 8, 2025
The three worst teams during the regular season are all given a 14% chance of picking first in the NBA Draft due to the league’s lottery system, and getting into that mix is how the bottom feeders of the league will define success this season.
As we sit here today, there are four teams “battling” for those three spots — let’s take a look at how adding Flagg would impact their current roster, understanding that this offseason could result in some tweaks around the edges.
Lottery Lurkers: Teams in a Flagg State of Mind
Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards hung 132 points on the Charlotte Hornets in their seventh game last season with a starting unit that included Kyle Kuzma (now in Milwaukee), Deni Avdija (now in Portland), Tyus Jones (now in Phoenix), and Daniel Gafford (now in Dallas). Since then, they’ve lost 107 of 129 games and are in desperate need of an offensive hub (in addition to many other things):
- 25th in assist-to-turnover ratio
- 27th in eFG%
- 27th in free throw rate
- 27th in non-blocked 2P%
Jordan Poole’s contract isn’t going anywhere, and while Bub Carrington has had his moments as a 19-year-old, there is no denying that this team is needy for backcourt stability as much as anything.
Flagg, of course, won’t help that, but the influx of raw talent could raise all tides. For me, winning the lottery would result in the Wizards looking a lot like this year’s Hornets — competitive stretches but little to show for it in terms of victories.
As a fan of this game more than any team, I’d rather not see Flagg in the nation’s capital. Washington has already clinched its seventh consecutive losing season; without any semblance of winning players on this roster, I hate the idea of this special talent potentially not playing in meaningful games early in his career.
Charlotte Hornets
If there is one team that is tracking the recent quotes at a high level, it’s the Hornets. They’ve run into some health issues (Brandon Miller is done for the season and LaMelo Ball is currently banged up) and poor luck (four fewer wins compared to expectations given their statistical makeup), but their roster isn’t in the class of these other bottom feeders.
Case in point: Charlotte was 6-9 to open this season, the same winning percentage as the Chicago Bulls, the final team in the play-in tournament. That wasn’t a bad start, and it could have been far better — they played three games against elite East teams (two against Boston and one against Cleveland) and were dead even on the scoreboard for Quarters 2-4 across those contests.
To drive that point home, they are 27-23-2 against the spread this season; they are not only better than their record suggests, but they are better than the sharp betting public believes.
They may need Ball’s ankle injury to linger to stay in this conversation, but with the restructured lottery odds, why wouldn’t Charlotte be extra cautious?
How high would expectations rise if the Hornets were to win the battle of ping pong balls on May 12? I can assure you that, if the roster they currently have is the one they have on that date, I will be betting them to make the playoffs.
LeBron James is the difference-making top overall pick who most people in this generation default to when thinking of instant-impact players. He increased the Cavaliers’ win total by 18 in his first season. That level of growth would be very possible in this scenario.
If we are looking for a more recent example of a team reversing its fortunes over the course of a summer, why can’t the 2025 Hornets with Flagg do what the Detroit Pistons (29 wins through 55 games this season, up from eight a season ago) are in the process of doing?
- G: Cade Cunningham – LaMelo Ball
- G: Jaden Ivey – Brandon Miller
- F: Malik Beasley – Miles Bridges
- F: Ausar Thompson – Cooper Flagg
- C: Jalen Duren – Mark Williams
I’d argue for Charlotte’s starting unit in this situation. Over the month leading up to the 2025 All-Star break, they beat Dallas while hanging with the Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, and Denver Nuggets after slow starts in those respective games.
It appears to be a four-team race for three top lottery spots; Charlotte is, in my eyes, the heavy favorite to win its way out of that status. But if that’s not the case, the rest of the league will be rooting against them drawing the top overall pick.
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are closer to the Wizards than the Hornets, but the cupboard is far from empty. Keyonte George has seen his assist rate rise with a usage spike in his second season, Walker Kessler is a force within five feet of the bucket (11.3 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 2.34 blocks per game this season), and the John Collins/Collin Sexton duo is likely to be intact for at least one more season.
Utah ranks seventh in 3-point rate, a nod to its willingness to play analytically sound despite the presence of a paint-locked big man. That gives me confidence in their ability to adapt to a player like Flagg.
That said, this team doesn’t appear positioned to make much noise in the short term, even if they were to win the lottery. The top 10 in the West entering the All-Star break project more favorably, and that doesn’t include a Phoenix Suns team with Kevin Durant or a San Antonio Spurs team that I think has win-the-conference potential as soon as next season.
Adding Flagg would make the Jazz more exciting, though I’m not sure it would result in seriously challenging 35 wins.
New Orleans Pelicans
This is an interesting spot with plenty of fantasy basketball appeal at the very least. Trey Murphy III has looked good in his expanded role while the temptation that comes with Zion Williamson (three more seasons of team control on his contract) is tough to quantify.
I’m not 100% sold on the backcourt tandem of Dejounte Murray (player option in 2028) and CJ McCollum (one season left on his deal), but this roster has access to plenty of spacing. With them operating at the 12th-fastest-paced team, this is the type of situation where Flagg could put up big numbers if identified as the centerpiece of the action.
Without a natural playmaker on this offense (I like Jose Alvarado more than most, but asking him to handle those duties is a lot, even for me), this is a landing spot that projects as wildly inconsistent, much like it’s been this season (they sandwiched a 7-3 run with a pair of double-digit losing streaks).
Before trading Brandon Ingram to Toronto for roster fillers and future assets, I would have said that this team was likely to play itself out of this spot in the standings, but that move hints that the tank could be on. New Orleans travels to Dallas coming out of the break — after that, how many games do you realistically see them winning over the next month?
- at Suns
- at Suns
- at Jazz (third road game in four days)
- at Lakers
- vs. Houston Rockets
- at Rockets
- vs. Grizzlies
- vs. Los Angeles Clippers
- vs. Orlando Magic
- at Spurs
- vs. Pistons
- at Minnesota Timberwolves
- at Timberwolves
- at Pistons
Per our NBA Power Rankings, things will likely get worse before they get better for this talented but flawed roster. The Wizards (nine wins) are highly likely to retain their status as a holder of top-lottery odds with the other three teams (all sitting at 13 victories), “battling” for the final two spots.
Considering all things from schedule to talent to health, I have the Jazz finishing with the second-worst record, the Pelicans the third-worst, and the Hornets the fourth-worst (the Toronto Raptors are the only other team in that conversation, but with a four-win advantage and a week stretch that sees them play the Wizards and Jazz twice in the first half of March, they have a comparably favorable outlook for the rest of the season).
There’s only so much you can do right now. The best way to access Flagg’s tremendous skill set is to watch our College Basketball Power Rankings, where his Blue Devils have held the top spot since Jan. 8. Enjoy watching him (and betting on him) against collegiate competition — the pros will come calling soon, and he could be the focal point of a significant turnaround by this time next season.
