Anthony Davis will unlock elite Cooper Flagg skill to make Mavericks unstoppable

Through two Summer League games, Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg has put on a show, with his best game coming on Saturday afternoon against the San Antonio Spurs. Flagg finished with 31 points and four rebounds while shooting 10-21 from the field and 8-13 from the free throw line.

Flagg was attacking the rim all game long, and even though his heavy ball-handling workload was "exhausting," he felt that he handled the pressure of Carter Bryant and other Spurs defenders well. At Summer League, the Mavericks have looked to make Flagg "uncomfortable" by making him play plenty of point guard, and while he was impressive in his two Summer League appearances before ultimately getting shut down, fans won't see Flagg at his best until the NBA regular season, especially playing alongside Anthony Davis.

Ever since the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis, he has been the new star in town, and he is poised to unlock Flagg's game more than anyone realizes by allowing him to spread his wings as a secondary playmaker and show off his passing. On top of being a great mentor, Davis is going to help Flagg play a style that Mavs fans are going to love, and play to his strengths better than what we saw in his two Summer League performances.

Anthony Davis is the key to unlocking Cooper Flagg's elite playmaking

While Flagg will likely still handle the ball often in the regular season, playing alongside Davis and D'Angelo Russell is only going to help take some weight off his shoulders, and he'll be able to play off of them smoothly.

At Summer League, Flagg was forced to be the primary creator all the time, and he will hit another level once he can play as a secondary creator, play off advantages, and allow the game to come to him. When Flagg shares the floor with Davis and plays on the wing, Davis is going to command immense defensive pressure, and this will allow Flagg to show off what he does best.

Flagg is elite at making reads when getting downhill, and he seemingly always makes the right play. This is something that Mavs Summer League head coach Josh Broghamer has preached over the last week, and he has all of the confidence in the world in Flagg and his abilities. He has made countless great passes over his first two games, it just hasn't resulted in many assists due to so many missed shots for Dallas.

Against San Antonio, Dallas shot 6-27 from downtown and 24-66 from the field, with many of these misses being plays that would have otherwise been assists for Flagg.

Once Flagg is playing with players like Davis, Klay Thompson, and Kyrie Irving, he is going to rack up many more assists, and fans are going to realize how good of a passer he truly is. He was quietly one of the best passers in the draft this past season, along with new teammate Ryan Nembhard, and being Dallas' small forward with Davis at the four is going to make life hard for opposing defenses.

When playing with shooters like Thompson and Irving, it will give Dallas' offense much more spacing, allowing Flagg to get to the rim more easily. Flagg pretty much had to create all of the offense at Summer League, and once he is playing with some deadly shooters and players who will command the attention of the defense, it will allow him to play off some advantages and pick apart the defense with his advanced feel for the game and playmaking ability.

Davis is also an outstanding playmaker, and both players are going to be able to play off each other and wreak havoc on teams across the NBA. Playing next to Davis is truly going to change everything for Flagg, and fans are going to see an entirely different Cooper Flagg once the regular season rolls around.