Cooper Flagg's 'special power' will make Mavericks unstoppable in no time

Cooper Flagg is having a stellar start to his rookie season for the Dallas Mavericks, and his "special power" has helped thrust him into elite conversation after just four games.

Even though the Mavericks fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-94 last night and Flagg had the roughest game of his NBA career (two points on 1-9 shooting), Dallas fans have every reason to be excited about him and his future. One of the strongest parts of his game has been his ability to take over the game at any moment, and D'Angelo Russell spoke about this earlier this week.

"I think that’s his special power," Russell said on Sunday night after a win over the Toronto Raptors when asked about Flagg's ability to take over a game in short stretches. "Everybody wants him to put up Kevin Durant numbers, but he’s relentless. He’s nonstop. His motor is nonstop, offensively, defensively."

Cooper Flagg already controls every part of the game

Russell couldn't have described this better.

Flagg isn't going to drop 20+ points every single night like he did against Toronto, but he is going to leave his mark on the game every time that he steps onto the floor. He has gotten better in almost every game that he has played in thus far, and his ability to lock down on defense on one end while making every right decision on the other is priceless.

This is something that only the best players in the NBA can do, as being an elite defender while making play after play on the offensive end is extremely taxing and rare, but Flagg is laying a great foundation to have these types of stretches and affect the game at a high level on a nightly basis. He plays the game the right way, and his pull on the outcome of the game will only improve as he gets older.

Flagg can shift the tide of a game within just a few minutes, and he has a knack for getting the crowd going and helping swing the momentum back in his team's direction when they need it most. This was especially true against Toronto, as he helped the Mavericks gain serious momentum in the third quarter.

Thanks to Flagg, Dallas flipped a three-point Raptors lead to a 10-point Mavericks lead in the span of just over two and a half minutes, and this stretch helped Dallas gain and keep the lead, ultimately leading them to their first win of the season.

In this short amount of time, Flagg scored seven points, with his final bucket being the most spectacular play of his career. Off a throw-ahead pass from Russell in transition, Flagg completed an and-one slam over Sandro Mamukelashvili, and the crowd went bonkers.

From this moment forward, fans were on the edge of their seats every time that Flagg got the ball, as everyone now knew how dominant he could be when he asserts himself and is aggressive on offense.

Jason Kidd talked about this after the win over Toronto on Sunday night, and his breakdown of everything that Flagg can bring should excite fans.

"I think his ability to understand what the defense and who’s guarding him and what he can get to," Kidd said. "Being able to shoot the three off the dribble and then also being able to get into the paint. His IQ is extremely high, and just understanding him off the dribble, getting downhill, and his athleticism to be able to finish but also to playmake in that stretch of two to three minutes is really good for us, and we’re gonna need that."

Flagg's game is still coming together, and he still has plenty of time to develop, but his ability to take over a game is something that he already has after only playing in four NBA games. The Mavericks are going to need this moving forward, especially in close games in the clutch, and it looks like they just found their future closer for years to come.