Kevin O’Connor blasts Nico Harrison while discussing Celtics’ Jaylen Brown for Duke Blue Devils basketball phenom Cooper Flagg trade

Cooper Flagg is projected to land with the Dallas Mavericks as the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. However, recent reports have revealed potential trade interest in the Duke superstar for many teams across the league.

One of those teams is the Boston Celtics. The 2024 champions just bowed out to the Knicks following Jayson Tatum’s heartbreaking Achilles tear, and they could look to retool or rebuild their roster this offseason.

Flagg, who has said he models his game after Tatum, is also a lifelong Celtics fan. Given Boston’s relative lack of draft capital (the No. 28 and No. 32 picks), a scenario in which Flagg comes home to Beantown seems quite unlikely. 

Even so, the Celtics reportedly interviewed Flagg at the NBA Draft Combine. Unlike most teams in the league, Boston does have a plethora of win-now players with championship experience that could potentially entice a team like Dallas.

On a May 16 episode of his show with Yahoo Sports, Kevin O’Connor leaked the connection between the Celtics and Flagg.

“I have multiple sources telling me the Celtics interviewed Cooper Flagg,” O’Connor said. “I do think it’s interesting. The way it works at the draft combine, teams can interview up to 13 players, and they rank the players that they most want to interview. This would mean that they had Cooper Flagg, Tre Johnson, guys like that ranked high…”

While Mavs general manager Nico Harrison should have enough sense not to risk dealing Flagg, his infamous Luka Doncic trade will forever have Dallas fans unsure of his next move. The Celtics would likely have to move Jaylen Brown in any kind of deal for a superstar player or a top-five pick. 

Not even a day after ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony surmised that Harrison “would get fired if he even brought that (trading Flagg) up,” O’Connor took a subtle jab at Harrison and his potential willingness to listen to Flagg offers.

“Boston calls Nico, and they offer Jaylen Brown,” O’Connor said. “How many first-round picks is it gonna take, Nico? I wonder if Dallas and their entire decision-making unit would listen. I just wonder.”

The Mavs would almost certainly regret it if they traded their No. 1 pick, but anything seems possible with Harrison at the helm.