Cooper Flagg has made it painfully obvious what his NBA future will be

There are plenty of opinions about what Cooper Flagg is going to wind up becoming in his NBA career. But through the first 11 games of the Dallas Mavericks' season, anyone who knows what they're looking at can tell that this kid is going to be an absolute star. 

As of this writing, Flagg is averaging 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists while being a solid defensive contributor as well. Mind you, he is only 18 years old, and he is being tasked with carrying a relatively large offensive load for this Mavericks team. What Cooper is doing is simply not normal. 

Being able to have this kind of composure on both sides of the basketball while having high level two-way impact is alien for a rookie player. We don't just see highlights from Flagg on a nightly basis, what we see is him being motivated, disciplined, and making good decisions with the basketball nearly every time down the floor. 

Cooper Flagg will be a superstar in Dallas

Cooper rarely forces bad shots, defends with patience, and already understands spacing and offensive dynamics better than players who have several years in the league under their belt. It's an extremely encouraging development that Flagg already plays with the kind of maturity that translates to winning basketball. 

Being such a high level defender just a few short games into his rookie year is possibly the most promising thing about Flagg's game. Cooper is already operating in different spots defensively, blocking shots at the rim, and anchoring lineups that register with strong defensive efficiency. That's promising for a rookie, and it points to him being a high level player on both ends for years to come. 

He may not be putting up 25 points a night yet, but the kind of production he has shown this early on while being the focal point in crunch time and having a good amount of pressure on his shoulders is more than impressive. Flagg is making the kind of winning plays that don't always show up in the stat sheet, and that's another thing that should tell us how strong of a player he'll be once the rest of his skill set inevitably improves that much more. 

Anyone who has truly been paying attention in Dallas this season can see that Cooper Flagg doesn't just look like another good young player, he looks like the kind of foundational star that you build around to contend for a championship. Even with all the noise going on in the background, it should be easy to see that the future is bright for the Mavs.