10-25-2025, 03:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-25-2025, 03:34 PM by hakeemfaan.)
(10-25-2025, 02:44 PM)cow Wrote: I never expected Flagg to be Luka. My Luka comparison was more about the readiness to be in the league. I also don't think I'm being hard on him. It's not his choice to play PG, but a coaching decision. I'm not saying Flagg can never develop into that, but I really don't think he should be playing that right now. It's throwing his game off on the offensive end, not to mention the rest of the team. It's just too easy for a defender to get into him and he has to focus more on his ball handling than running sets which wastes clock. That also puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team to try and create something later in the possession and makes it harder for Flagg to get the ball back. And yeah, I do think he's looked lost at times on offense just as many times as he's flashed. That's understandable and he'll learn. He's just really, really, really young.
And that's just the offensive end where I never expected a major impact, but I did expect that he'd show more on the other end and the same is true of a collective unit of AD, DLive and Flagg. Wemby clowning on us is one thing, but the Wizards put it on us for three quarters and made Bagley look like an NBA player. Shout out to George, he's going to be something special.
I don't think I'm being hard on Flagg at all. I didn't have sky high expectations of him and he's underwhelmed those, but I think a big chunk of that is the position his coaches have put him in and some of the rest of the roster (I must have done something horrible in another life as the basketball gods have seen fit to put D'Lo on the team that I watch(not to mention extending Kidd and trading away one of the greatest basketball minds of this generation)).
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 when there are very few (I am not thinking of any actually) who came in at 18 and could immediately shut down anyone. All you can ask is they play hard, and keep improving. Flagg is doing the first part. The 2nd part remains to be seen.