3 NBA teams Cooper Flagg can save from a complete teardown

The 2025 NBA Draft cycle continues to revolve around Duke freshman Cooper Flagg. There has been mounting debate over his worthiness of the No. 1 pick, with Rutgers' Dylan Harper and Illinois' Kasparas Jakucionis among the most compelling challengers to Flagg's crown. But, a simple truth emerges at the end of the day. There isn't a single prospect with Flagg's blend of size, skill, and IQ on the board.

Flagg has done incredible things at Duke already, and he turned 18 mere days ago. The scoring efficiency hasn't been what scouts expected — .421/.250/.746 splits — but it's unwise to react too strongly to a 12-game sample size when Flagg has traditionally shot much better across the board. Again, we are talking about a 17-year-old leveling up to college competition. He deserves patience, even if fans' appetite for immediate results does not afford him much at first glance.

He's averaging 16.3 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, checking all sorts of boxes. His usage ranks second among high-major freshmen, trailing only Oklahoma point guard and projected top-five pick Jeremiah Fears. He is carrying that workload, again, mostly before his 18th birthday — as a 6-foot-9 forward, whose best attributes are geared toward a connective role. So, we are watching Flagg expand his repertoire and stretch the limits of his game in real time, which is one more reason to avoid hand-wringing about the jumper.

Factor in elite defensive playmaking (1.5 steals, 1.3 blocks), and Flagg has very few genuine holes as a prospect. He's the best since Victor Wembanyama by a comfortable margin, and one of the most compelling, well-rounded talents to enter the NBA in a while. He may also be good enough to save a team from the brink of collapse.

Here are a few NBA teams approaching 'blow it up' territory who might be saved with a lucky tumble to No. 1 overall in the upcoming draft.

Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like The Whiteboard, share it with an enemy!

3. New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans are 5-28. Zion Williamson has appeared in six total games this season and it's unclear when he will return from his latest hamstring injury. Brandon Ingram, meanwhile, is on the trade block as he rehabs from a sprained ankle. CJ McCollum, Dejounte Murray, and Trey Murphy have all missed significant time as well.

It has been the worst imaginable campaign for a Pelicans team that was 49-33 last season and fairly optimistic after trading for Murray over the summer. On paper, New Orleans has all the pieces necessary to contend, but none of the stability or continuity necessary to survive in a brutal Western Conference.

Ingram is as good as gone, but the Pelicans appear stuck with Zion for the time being, while McCollum and Murray are both on contracts that will be hard to trade. The Pelicans have the talent, when healthy, to win games at a respectable level. That said, it could take a stroke of luck — such as New Orleans stumbling into Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick — to truly salvage this iteration of the Pelicans.

David Griffin and the front office are bound to consider seismic changes in the offseason, especially if Zion can't get healthy and put together a productive second half. If the Pelicans end up with Flagg, however, that suddenly extends their timeline and bakes some patience into the whole affair. Suddenly New Orleans can see how Flagg elevates their lineup in the short term while having plenty of time to carefully plan out the long term.

2. Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings lost six straight prior to Monday's victory over Dallas. That was enough to punch Mike Brown's ticket out the door, with Doug Christie installed as the interim head coach until season's end. It has been tough sledding all around for the Kings, who aren't exactly beat up or injured — just disconnected.

No team has executed worse in late-game situations all season, which is baffling when one considers the clutch pedigree of De'Aaron Fox and newcomer DeMar DeRozan. Just two seasons ago, Sacramento held home-court advantage in the first round and broke a 17-year postseason drought under Brown's command. For it to all come tumbling down to quickly was a shock.

Now there is real buzz surrounding a potential De'Aaron Fox trade. The All-Star point guard is in the penultimate year of his contract and his agency, Klutch Sports, wields a lot of power in league circles. If Fox is not convinced of Sacramento's long-term plan, he might try to bust out.

There's no way for the Kings to guarantee Cooper Flagg's arrival before the trade deadline, but if Fox does stick it out through a lottery-bound season, landing Flagg would meaningfully change the trajectory of this Kings team. He is the perfect "fourth" star in a lineup consisting of Fox, DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis, providing weak-side rim protection as a power forward and slotting seamlessly into a connective role on offense. 1Flagg can work two-man actions with Fox, attack seams off the catch, or finish plays in the dunker spot when Sabonis is dealing at the elbow.

1. Golden State Warriors

Right now, the Golden State Warriors own the 13th-best odds for the No. 1 pick. Maybe this is a pipe dream. Scratch that, it's definitely a pipe dream. But, with Golden State continuing to stall in a highly competitive Western Conference, anything is possible. We just saw the Atlanta Hawks land No. 1 overall with the 10th-best odds, so this is not as far from the realm of possibility as one might expect.

It's hard to imagine how exactly a Golden State "teardown" would transpire — they're riding Stephen Curry until the wheels fall off — but another middling campaign would definitely put Draymond Green's future in doubt, while Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney, and other former "core" pieces are already on the trade block.

The Warriors may struggle to justify running it back next season, especially with Steph's window closing so rapidly, but Flagg would change the calculus immediately. It's unwise to expect immediate star impact from an 18-year-old, but Flagg should be a winning player from the jump. He has all the tools. He is also uniquely engineered to thrive in the Dubs offense, where he could honestly learn a ton from Draymond on both ends.

Flagg and Steph would represent the past, present, and future all at once, and give the Warriors a real chance to starting winning more consistently in 2025-26. We haven't seen the last of Steph's elite shot-making, and Steve Kerr, for all his faults, can still build a winner around the right pieces. Flagg qualifies as a "right" piece.