The entire basketball world held its breath on Thursday when Duke freshman Cooper Flagg crumpled to the floor after a rebound in the Blue Devils' ACC Tournament win over Georgia Tech.
The talented 18-year-old needed assistance walking off the court and was later seen in a wheelchair before returning to the sideline.
Cooper Flagg exited the game and was helped to the locker room after appearing to injure his left ankle in the first half against Georgia Tech. pic.twitter.com/EiUslVt0ZM
— ESPN (@espn) March 13, 2025
Initial X-rays were negative, per Duke head coach Jon Scheyer. Flagg has a sprained ankle, so it's not as catastrophic as it felt in the moment. Still, it's only natural to express concern over Flagg's availability for the rest of the ACC Tournament and March Madness. Duke's title odds took a sharp dive in the aftermath of Flagg's hard fall.
For the worst NBA teams, Flagg has been a motivator all season. A lot of tanking front offices have built their entire strategy around jockeying for the best possible chance to select Flagg No. 1 overall next June. If he's seriously hurt and held out of games this March, it could adversely impact his stock — if only slightly.
We shouldn't be knocking Flagg out of the No. 1 spot on draft boards right now, but lower-leg injuries are always a red flag. It's a new element of concern for a prospect with precious few issues otherwise.
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 it, share it with an enemy!
Projected NBA Draft Lottery after Duke's Cooper Flagg sprains ankle in ACC Tournament
Order | Name | Team | Position | School |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Cooper Flagg | Washington Wizards | F | Duke |
2 | Dylan Harper | Utah Jazz | G | Rutgers |
3 | VJ Edgecombe | Charlotte Hornets | G | Baylor |
4 | Ace Bailey | New Orleans Pelicans | F | Rutgers |
5 | Collin Murray-Boyles | Philadelphia 76ers | F | South Carolina |
6 | Jeremiah Fears | Brooklyn Nets | G | Oklahoma |
7 | Khaman Maluach | Toronto Raptors | C | Duke |
8 | Tre Johnson | Chicago Bulls | G | Texas |
9 | Noa Essengue | Portland Trail Blazers | F | Ulm (France) |
10 | Kasparas Jakucionis | San Antonio Spurs | G | Illinois |
11 | Jase Richardson | Miami Heat | G | Michigan State |
12 | Kon Knueppel | Houston Rockets (via PHX) | F | Duke |
13 | Ben Saraf | Dallas Mavericks | G | Ulm (Israel) |
14 | Derik Queen | Atlanta Hawks (via SAC) | C | Maryland |
To put it bluntly, it would take an act of divine intervention to keep Cooper Flagg out of the No. 1 slot. Unless Dallas wins the lottery and Nico Harrison drafts another center or something. Only a profoundly mismanaged front office would take an alternate route.
It's impossible to peg down the top player from a rookie class with 100 percent certainty, but Flagg offers the clearest path to stardom and the lowest apparent risk. He arrived in Durham as a 17-year-old and almost immediately emerged as the best player in college basketball, elevating his playmaking profile to complement three-level scoring and a voracious appetite for stops on defense.
At 6-foot-9, Flagg is a physical, hard-edged competitor who can impact the game through sheer force of will, even when shots are falling. He can still stand to tighten his handle and clean up some of his decision-making under pressure, but he's already quite sharp. Flagg is also one of the youngest players on the board. Washington, or whichever team is awarded No. 1 in the lottery, will be glad to bring Flagg onboard.
The next man up is a more complicated equation. Rutgers point guard Dylan Harper has emerged as the consensus No. 2 on most boards, but Baylor's VJ Edgecombe has been extremely impressive over the last month. Of note, Edgecombe will have a chance to show out in the NCAA Tournament, whereas Harper's Rutgers team is effectively done for the season.
Harper's freshman co-star, Ace Bailey, also has an outside shot at claiming the No. 2 crown. His game is peppered with far more holes than his high-lottery counterparts, but man, when you're 6-foot-10, that athletic, and capable of sinking the shots Bailey hits on a nightly basis, it's easy to look past immediate shortcomings and grasp of the bigger picture. The NBA is starved for rangy, floor-spacing wings with credible defense. Bailey is that.
This is a loaded crop of talent, but Flagg still reigns supreme as the best available prospect — whether he dominates the upcoming NCAA Tournament or spends the rest of his Duke tenure in street clothes.