NBA Draft 2025: Cooper Flagg has Lead Playmaker Potential

Cooper Flagg’s passing acumen is one of the many traits that make him a special prospect. Just as we did with Dylan Harper and Kasparas Jakucionis, I hand-tracked all of Cooper Flagg’s passes from this season so far (through February 17) to learn more about his playmaking chops.

Flagg’s raw passing numbers are strong for any prospect, let alone a 6’9 freshman — 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio, 24.9% assist rate and 14.8% turnover rate. The metrics I’m tracking lined up with the perception of Flagg as an excellent passing prospect.

cooper flagg pass tracking

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— Ben Pfeifer (@bjpf.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 11:16 PM

As always, this tracking aims to capture important aspects of a player’s passing skill that aren’t captured in box scores or even traditional advanced metrics. It’s critical to know how a player handles pressure, where they like to pass to and from and how often they make NBA-level passes.

Cooper Flagg is a big time passer

Of the 160 passing chances (potential assists + passing turnovers) I tracked on Synergy through Flagg’s first 26 games, 24.4% of them were “big-time passes,” inspired by Pro Football Focus’s Big Time Throws metric. These passes display a high level of vision, anticipation, manipulation or creativity and often come in tight windows or on the move.

I’ve charted passing chances for seven 2025 prospects so far (Flagg, Harper, Jakucionis, Derik Queen, Jase Richardson, Labaron Philon, VJ Edgecombe). Of those seven, Flagg’s big-time pass rate ranks second in the group, only trailing Queen (26.7%). He’s constantly attempting and converting high-level passes, like this left-handed lob in a tight window with perfect accuracy:

holy shit cooper flagg???

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— Ben Pfeifer (@bjpf.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 9:33 PM

It’s easy for tall, dynamic players like Flagg to pass when defenses don’t bother them, but Flagg is a strong passer under pressure. He spent 15.6% of his passing chances under pressure (4th out of 7 prospects), finding potential assists on a huge 80% of those chances. The sample here isn’t huge (25 possessions) but the success here is encouraging nonetheless.

cooper flagg insane twisting passing under pressure pic.twitter.com/cPvMoccS2J

— bjpfclips (@bjpfclips) February 19, 2025

This data only covers passing chances under pressure and passing turnovers. Flagg is excellent at limiting passing turnovers (10% passing turnover rate), but the majority of his turnovers result from his loose handle. Defenses who pressure Flagg often pluck the ball from him, which is a notable concern (but not the focus of this exploration), but he tends to make solid decisions when he doesn’t lose the ball.

Flagg can improve his handle 

Flagg’s current handling limitations influence his extremely low live dribble passing rate (1.4%), the lowest of any prospect I’ve charted. Remarkably, just two of his 160 passing chances (clipped below) were live dribble passes. He lacks the ball control to blend his dribble into passes, which leads to turnovers, but this means that handling improvement could directly correlate with playmaking progression.

cooper flagg live dribble passes pic.twitter.com/R4KTkj4Ikc

— bjpfclips (@bjpfclips) February 19, 2025

Flagg’s passing manipulation, especially on interior passes, help him toss elite passes throughout games. His 11.7% manipulation rate and his 28.3% rim potential assist rate both rank second among the seven prospects I’ve tracked. Flagg weaponizes pump fakes, eye movement and body language to crack open passing windows, often for high-value layup and dunk passes.

I’ll continue to update my tracking sheet throughout the cycle, but for now, Flagg grades out as one of the best passers in the draft, regardless of position.