Cooper Flagg On Pace to Win NBA Rookie of the Year
The race for the NBA Rookie of the Year award is really just a two-man race early between Cooper Flagg (-110) of the Dallas Mavericks and his former Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel II (+120) of the Charlotte Hornets.
Flagg, who is coming off his best two-game stretch of the season, just put up huge milestones out West in consecutive games against the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.
When we look back at the ROY race, we can remember the exact moment when Flagg snapped out of his early-season “funk” and sparked the Dallas Mavericks to get back on solid footing. Mavs head coach Jason Kidd recently said, “He’s leaping LeBron [James] already. That’s not hyperbole. That’s history.”
As of Tuesday, the Mavericks are 6-15 with the playoffs seeming so far away in a very competitive Western Conference. The team is still reeling from last season’s Luka Doncic trade, and injuries to Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis haven’t made things any easier.
Nevertheless, Flagg will get plenty of opportunities to show everyone that he is the generational talent people say he is.
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Cooper Flagg Dominates Los Angeles
On Friday against the Lakers, Flagg dished out 11 assists, which is the most by an 18-year-old in NBA history. The No. 1 overall pick added 13 points and seven assists to the record-setting night, but it was just an appetizer to the main course of the weekend.
The next night, Flagg became the youngest player in league history to score 35 points, and it didn’t look like an optimistic start to the night. Mavs’ center PJ Washington suffered an ankle injury before tip-off, giving the team only eight healthy bodies in the rotation. Flagg took the opportunity and ran with it, which was highlighted by putting Clippers center Ivica Zubac on a poster with a one-handed slam right in his face.
As teammate Klay Thompson said after Saturday’s game, “It was cool to witness the start of something special.”
Cooper Flagg on Pace to Win NBA Rookie of the Year
Coming into the season, Flagg was a -170 favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award. However, it was Knueppel getting off to the hottest start of all, and he wound up as the favorite by mid-November with Flagg out of the lead at +120. Then came Friday’s performance against the Lakers.
All of the major sportsbooks had shifted the odds to reflect Flagg as the favorite at even money. Now, you’re starting to see Flagg jump up a bit as bettors have come in droves to back him as the favorite. Currently, Flagg has odds around -120 to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award across the industry.
As of Tuesday, Flagg leads all NBA rookies in field goals made (129), rebounds (131), and minutes played (678), while ranking second in assists (69). The rebounding has been particularly helpful to the Mavs, as he’s grabbed 7+ in five straight games.
What are the Odds for Kon Knueppel II to Win NBA Rookie of the Year?
Knueppel currently has +120 odds to win the NBA Rookie of the Year. But the real question is whether he can keep it going. Here in recent games, that answer has been “no.”
On Wednesday, Knueppel had a rough night against the New York Knicks, going 2-for-12 from the field and 0-for-7 from behind the arc. He followed that up with a 12-point clunker on Friday against the Chicago Bulls, and this all comes after Knueppel had gone four straight games with 24+ points, and in five of his previous six.
