NBA head coach on Cooper Flagg: 'He can flat out play'

Cooper Flagg is already turning heads for the USA Select Team. In an interview with ESPN, head coach Jamahl Mosley, who is also the Orlando Magic’s head coach, raved about the 17-year-old standout.

“I hadn’t been around him, so just meeting him and talking to him the first day in practice the other day, you can just see the quiet confidence that he carries with himself,” Mosley said. “His ability to know what he’s capable of doing, but also the humility of knowing, ‘OK, I’m still trying to figure some of these things out at this level,’ but he’s not afraid of it. And that’s what, that’s one thing you can tell right away.

“[He has a] high basketball IQ, tough, willing to learn,” Mosley continued. “He gets to the spots that he needs to for a shot a lot, able to get to the rim, great touch on his shot… I mean, he can play. There’s no in-between. There’s me saying, in many different forms, he can just flat-out play.”

The USA Select Team features a roster of 12 current NBA or NBA G League players; two players with NBA, NBA G League, international and USA Basketball experience; and one incoming college freshman with USA Basketball experience. Flagg is that lucky freshman this year.

The select team will regularly scrimmage against Team USA ahead of the Olympics. On Sunday, the two teams met for the first time. The USA Select Team has had numerous players in the past who went on to play for Team USA, including Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton.

Flagg was the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, according to On3’s Industry Rankings. The Duke commit averaged 26.8 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.2 blocks and 4.7 assists per game in the Nike EYBL league ahead of his senior season.

Mosley’s compliments carry weight. As the head coach of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner on the Orlando Magic, Mosley knows how to develop oversized small forwards. Cooper Flagg is simply grateful for the experience and hopes to soak in as much knowledge as he can.

“I think it’s everything,” Flagg said, when asked what he can learn from this experience. “Just the way they conduct themselves, the way they take care of themselves, how they treat their bodies, how they prepare.

“It really is a learning curve and something that you have to learn it and you have to kind of take it from other people and just kind of build your routine. So I think just going to see all their routines, kind of seeing how they interact with the trainers, everybody, and just seeing how they prepare.”