Jason Kidd is finally taking advantage of what makes Cooper Flagg special

Cooper Flagg was the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft because he's good at pretty much everything. There aren't many holes in Flagg's game on either end of the floor, and as his rookie season progresses, that versatility is becoming more evident by the day.

Of course, most of the credit for that goes to Flagg himself, who's averaging 20 / 7 / 4 per game plus 1.9 stocks while shooting 48% from the field. He's becoming more aggressive, looking more comfortable, and challenging defenders frequently.

Jason Kidd deserves some props, too, though. As confounding as Kidd's stance was earlier in the season when he insisted Cooper Flagg become a point guard, he's eased up on that approach and allowed Flagg to play where he's most comfortable; everywhere.

Sometimes, that is being the primary ballhandler. Sometimes it's being in the post, where he often has a size advantage on his matchup. Sometimes it's on the wing, getting the ball in motion and attacking the hoop. Kidd letting Flagg basically run around and produce wherever he has an advantage on any given play has totally opened things up for the Rookie of the Year frontrunner.

But Kidd realizing that Flagg's ability to impact the Mavericks' offense in different ways has been an important storyline this season. It was clunky at the start, but now Flagg is maximizing his talent and it's pretty thrilling to watch.

Cooper Flagg looks comfortable doing everything

Well, almost everything. The 3-point shooting has been a tad disappointing, as he's under 30% for the season, but it's hard to complain about much right now when every other aspect has looked how fans hoped it would.

Flagg improving his playmaking for others is probably the most exciting part of these recent developments. We knew Flagg would be able to score (even though he might be scoring more than anyone expected). Pairing that with being a facilitator who can move around the court and comfortably occupy four positions makes for a pretty dangerous — and unique — player.

In recent days, Flagg's scoring has been up and his assists have been down a bit, but from the end of December to the beginning of January, Flagg had a stretch of nine straight games with at least five assists.

He also has at least 10 rebounds in three of the past four games, showing just another dimension of his game. I know rebounds are a hotly debated topic in today's NBA discourse, but I'd still rather see Flagg getting rebounds than not getting rebounds, ya know?

Cooper Flagg is about ten players in one, and we're finally seeing all of those players emerge.