Cooper Flagg missed three straight games due to a left ankle sprain. The Dallas Mavericks rookie did return and made his debut at the Madison Square Garden but played minutes fewer than he usually logs in.
Is he still in minutes restriction? Head coach Jason Kidd allays fear about Flagg’s injury. He said the rookie looks good so far.
“He looked good. The athleticism, the bounce, the spirit, the energy, it looked like he hadn’t been out,” Kidd said after the win.
“When you’re shooting the ball the way we’ve shot it here of late, the last three games, the court tends to open up. But even when we weren’t shooting this way, he was still able to get to the paint, that’s just how good he is.”
The less than 30 minutes might only be situational as the Mavs dominated the Knicks. Flagg scored 18 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in that game.
Cooper Flagg drops in rookie ranking
Flagg is a favorite to win the Rookie of the Year but those games missed might have affected his standing in the NBA.com Rookie Ladder.
The Mavs forward dropped to no. 2 spot and lost the no. 1 position to his former teammate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets.
Writer Steve Aschburner wrote:
No sooner had we written about Flagg and Knueppel’s durability in the last Ladder than Flagg sprained an ankle at Denver that night and missed two games. But he fired back admirably Monday with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the Mavericks’ rout of New York at Madison Square Garden.
As for Knueppel, he is having a great first year as he is breaking records here and there. His latest is when he became the one of the two fastest players in league history to collect 100 2-point field goals, 100 3-pointers and 100 free throws.
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