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RE: GAME 2: Washington Wizards (0-1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (0-1) | 7:30pm CST - cow - 10-25-2025
(10-25-2025, 03:28 PM)hakeemfaan Wrote: Bagley is a NBA player. George had a great game, but he was an inefficient volume 3 pt shooter last year. If he can bump that up this year, yes he has a chance to be special. However, you can say the same about Flagg. If his outside shot gets more consistent, the sky is the limit.
As for defense, most of the breakdowns yesterday were on transition. Twin towers don't help when teams have multiple shooters from outside and pushing the pace. Twin towers make a difference when you can dominate the paint and score so much that you force the other team to adjust. Else the other team also has an advantage, especially when they are getting outside shots when bigs can't rotate. The Wizards put up 120 on a Giannis led team as well.
I was in NY for a period of time in the late 80s and early 90s and watched Pip from day 1 as there was a lot of Bulls telecasts. You could see some plays that he made that stood out, but it took a couple of years for him to transform his body to be able to become the defensive force that he was.
Again, I don't know what the future holds for Flagg. He could very well have an underwhelming career when all is said and done, but to say he is 18 and it's understandable that he is exposed on offense but then to say he should be doing much more on defense immediately seems very premature and unfair and doesn't align with other forwards in the past who came in at 18 and could immediately shut down stars on other teams..
I'm not putting a ceiling on Flagg, just noting that I'm underwhelmed by his first two games. The good news is that it is two games. The defensive issues were more than just transition. That's not all on Flagg either. The bad news is that Kidd is the coach and the roster around isn't ideal from a construction, injury, or age standpoint as he has less opportunity with the cast around him.
I don't really like the Pippen comparison, but Pippen is one of my favorite players ever. I'm not sure Flagg has that level of athleticism. I'd love to be wrong.
RE: GAME 2: Washington Wizards (0-1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (0-1) | 7:30pm CST - hakeemfaan - 10-25-2025
(10-25-2025, 03:37 PM)cow Wrote: I'm not putting a ceiling on Flagg, just noting that I'm underwhelmed by his first two games. The good news is that it is two games. The defensive issues were more than just transition. That's not all on Flagg either. The bad news is that Kidd is the coach and the roster around isn't ideal from a construction, injury, or age standpoint as he has less opportunity with the cast around him.
I don't really like the Pippen comparison, but Pippen is one of my favorite players ever. I'm not sure Flagg has that level of athleticism. I'd love to be wrong.
The Pip comparison is to show that even such a great player (and he is one of my fav players as well) didn't come and dominate anyone defensively right away. It was not to say Flagg would reach that level. That is the dream, but as I have said many times, if Flagg is a more motivated Andrew Wiggins, I'm fine with that, because a more motivated Andrew Wiggins would be a heckuva player. Not at the level of a Scottie. Not generational, but a really terrific foundational piece for years to come.
I'll take stock at the half way point and end of the season. It takes time. Dirk fully broke out in year 3. Wemby while great even previously, seems to have taken that leap this year. So I'm not going game by game, let alone 2 games in to make any sort of definitive statements about any rookie. What I've seen, I'm pleased, but yes, I agree with you there's a lot of room for improvement, which I fully expected would be the case on both ends.