Only one thing is certain heading into Monday night’s 2025 NBA Draft Lottery: Whichever team lands the No. 1 pick will select Cooper Flagg. Following a standout season at Duke, Flagg is unquestionably on his own tier and on top of every team’s draft board.
COOPER FLAGG JUST WENT COAST-TO-COAST AND POSTERIZED THE DEFENDER
ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS pic.twitter.com/Z5jcZ756ew
— ESPN (@espn) January 8, 2025
But which NBA landing spot would be the best fit? What are the most interesting landing spots for Cooper Flagg? Let’s break down the top landing spots (with their odds of landing the No. 1 pick).
San Antonio Spurs ( 6% chance)
This is the best basketball fit, probably what’s best for Flagg in terms of his career — and would be totally unfair for the rest of the NBA.
Put Flagg next to Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs would have the best defensive front line in the league starting next season (sorry Cleveland), plus two bigs who are gifted passers as well as scorers. Add in De’Aaron Fox at the point, Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, plus solid role players and this team is on a path to championships. Plural. It’s easy to envision the Spurs as contenders within a couple of years.
It also seems fitting to place Flagg with the franchise that had the most success with a Twin Towers lineup in NBA history (David Robinson and Tim Duncan).
It would just suck for the 29 other teams.
Philadelphia 76ers (10.5% chance)
Philadelphia winning this lottery feels like the basketball gods letting the Sixers off the hook for the questionable decisions (and bad injury luck) that have them in the lottery in the first place.
However, pairing Flagg with Tyrese Maxey — especially with a healthy Jared McCain at shooting guard — would be dynamic. Just that young core could have the Sixers contending in a few years down the line, if the roster is built out right around them.
For the first couple of years, the 76ers would have Paul George and Joel Embiid on the roster, too, and if the stars align and everyone is healthy, that team could chase a ring. However, landing Flagg would give Daryl Morey a clear path to he future of the franchise and the ability to pivot away from Embiid and George if it comes to that.
Brooklyn Nets (9% chance)
How badly does the NBA want Flagg in the league’s largest market?
It would also be a quality basketball fit because Brooklyn is well positioned to build a contender around Flagg: They have two other first-round picks in this draft alone, a number of future ones, and just four players under contract for next season. With that flexibility, the Nets could build quickly around Flagg with free agents and young players. Plus, if Giannis Antetokounmpo asks out of Milwaukee, and Brooklyn has Flagg, suddenly that looks like a much more desirable location for the Greek Freak.
Brooklyn also has a good coach in Jordi Fernandez, who kept getting the most out of players and winning despite management’s best efforts to tear everything down around him. There are a lot of reasons to think Flagg would thrive in Brooklyn.
Houston Rockets (3.8%)
Houston winning would set the Phoenix Suns fanbase on fire — this is the Suns’ pick, traded first to Brooklyn, then sent on to Houston (it is technically a swap, with the Rockets moving up to the lottery and the Nets getting the Rockets’ No. 27 pick). After the season the Suns just had, to watch their pick go first to another team would be cruel.
Houston is a team stacked with athletic young talent: Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason and more. Flagg would fit right in with his defense.
The playoffs showed Houston lacked an elite bucket getter in the half court and the clutch. Could Flagg be that guy? Maybe. Most importantly, this is a stacked roster with a lot of draft picks in the coming years, they are well positioned to build out a championship team around Flagg and their existing young core.
Portland Trail Blazers (3.7% chance)
As it showed in the final months of last season, Portland has some impressive young talent on the roster already: Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, and Donovan Clingan, to name a few. Flagg would fit right in with this core — Camara and Flagg playing defense with Clingan as a backstop would be fearsome — and he could help spark their offense.
Portland also is a fan base that knows how to embrace their stars and make them at home, just ask Damian Lillard.
5. Utah Jazz (14% chance)
Of the three teams with a 14% chance at winning the lottery — the three worst teams in the league last season — this is the best landing spot for Flagg. That’s because among the teams at the bottom of the league the Jazz have the best organizational foundation: Danny Ainge is an experienced head of basketball operations who knows how to build a winner, and they have a coach in Will Hardy who, even with the losses this season, drew the attention and respect of other teams for his player development and schemes.
Utah has the organizational foundation to build something impressive, they just need some luck to jump start the process. Like winning the NBA Draft Lottery.
