"Bronny was cooking him in summer league" - NBA fans erupt as Cooper Flagg outranks Paul George & Austin Reaves despite zero NBA minutes played

Fans are excited to see how Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg is going to perform in the NBA. According to an ESPN ranking, experts believe he has a lot of promise and have given him a better ranking than more seasoned players.

Every year, ESPN and other publications release rankings for most players in the league. The experienced players are usually placed higher than the ones who haven't played a single game.

However, Flagg was ranked No. 52 in ESPN's poll of the 100 top players this year. The Mavericks rookie was ranked higher than Myles Turner, Paul George and Austin Reaves.

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George was listed as No. 54, Turner was at No. 57 and Reaves was ranked at No. 60. After the ranking was revealed, fans had various reactions to it.

Here are some of what the fans said about ESPN's classification.

"bronny was cooking him in the summer league but alright 😂" a fan said. "So cooper Flagg is better than lamelo ball??? 😭😭😭😭," a fan brought up LaMelo Ball's ranking at No. 63. "He’s getting overrated ahead of turner is crazy He’s not better than even thanasis," one fan commented.

Other fans recognize the hype around Cooper Flagg.

"The hype is real but DAMN that’s a bit much," someone commented. "come on though, we really need to see him compete against the pros first!" another fan commented. "The gas for this kid is crazy. I hope he delivers," a fan said.

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Cooper Flagg is the favorite to win the ROTY award

There's a lot of hype surrounding Cooper Flagg ahead of his first season in the NBA. With how he performed at Duke, there's a lot of expectation for him to dominate in his first year with the Mavericks.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps had a survey with 20 coaches, scouts and executives across the league. The survey asked about the favorite to win the 2026 Rookie of the Year award, as well as predictions for the award winners for the upcoming season.

Surprisingly, Cooper Flagg had 19 votes to win the Rookie of the Year award. His college teammate, Kon Knueppel, had one vote in the poll.

"Not surprisingly, Flagg ran away from the field as one of the most anticipated prospects to come into the NBA in recent memory, possibly trailing only Wembanyama in that category," Bontemps wrote on Monday.

One assistant coach who voted for Knueppel said that his reason is that the rookie is expected to have more of the ball with the Charlotte Hornets, allowing him to put up better numbers than Flagg.

Edited by Dipayan Moitra