On Friday afternoon, following the release of ESPN’s straw poll for the NBA Awards, it appeared the NBA Rookie of the Year debate was over. Kon Knueppel, who was already a -300 favorite for the award, got 80 votes out of the 100 people that ESPN reached out to for their vote. The market reacted in extreme fashion, pushing Knueppel out to a -1800 favorite by Friday afternoon.
Cooper Flagg took that personally. The No. 1 overall pick went bonkers on Friday night, putting up 51 points on the Orlando Magic. By Saturday afternoon, while Knueppel was still favored for ROY, his former college teammate was right behind him on the odds board. Then Flagg went for an encore on Sunday night, playing in a nationally televised game against LeBron James and the Lakers. He went for another 45 points, barely missing out on the triple-double. As the game was going on, Flagg shifted to the ROY favorite.
I’m not here to debate if the ROY odds movement is right or wrong. But what I think we can take from this is that Flagg wants the award, and a Dallas team with nothing left to play for is going to let its franchise cornerstone try and get it.
Flagg has played significant minutes over the last couple of games, regardless of the score — which could come into factor here with the Mavericks priced as a double-digit underdog. Over the past two games, Flagg has attempted a combined 57 field goals and 24 free throws. While his points prop undoubtably is inflated, it still might not have caught up to the jump in volume we’re seeing from Flagg.
Again, I’m not telling you that a few more big games down the stretch will or won’t win the Rookie of the Year Award for Cooper Flagg. But it seems like a guarantee that Flagg is going out of his way to make sure he puts up the numbers to give himself the best shot. I’ll back Flagg in a few ways in this game, with my favorite being the plus-money on going for 30-plus points once again.
NBA Pick: Cooper Flagg 30+ Points (+115)
