Should they win the lottery, no one will question the Utah Jazz if they use the No. 1 pick to get Cooper Flagg. This time next year, the Duke freshman will transition from college phenom to NBA phenom. Really, he's just a basketball phenom.
The Jazz have been questioned for lacking that cornerstone, and Flagg is exactly that. He would be the start of a glorious future in Utah. However, for there to be a happily ever after, it's not going to just require Flagg, but also the right team around him.
For everything that Flagg excels at, there are definitely some areas of concern regarding his defense. Sam Vecenie and Bryce Simons discussed some of Flagg's issues on that end during Duke's elimination, including his problems with getting beat and that he's truly better at roaming on defense.
Flagg's ceiling as a defender was compared to Jayson Tatum, where he might not make All-Defense, but could be disruptive on that end.
Flagg was earlier compared to Kawhi Leonard, and while that's a golden comparison that the Jazz would very much welcome, Leonard needed help too, no matter how good he was defensively during his earlier days in the NBA.
So if the Jazz draft him, how they will build around Flagg's flaws will be their next challenge.
Why this could be a problem for the Jazz
Despite Walker Kessler's return to form, the Jazz's defense is currently pretty bad. Worse, this is not a new development this season.
The Jazz are tied for the worst defensive rating in NBA history with 120.4.
— Kato Parina (@KatoParinaSLC) April 7, 2025
The team they’re tied with? The 2023-24 Utah Jazz.
Outside of Kessler, the Jazz's youth has shown promise, but that has only been offensively. Defensively, it's a disaster, and drafting Flagg isn't going to automatically fix it, as previously established.
That's why this upcoming offseason will be very important for the Jazz. With the possibility that they may have Flagg for over a decade, the Jazz have to send him a message right away that they want to build a contender on both sides of the floor.
That will not come from one move but multiple. It was floated earlier that the Jazz should go after someone like Jrue Holiday because he is still an excellent defender with multiple NBA titles to his name. That, however, would just be the start, as Utah would have to add more than that.
Really, the Jazz can manage this problem as long as they get the right personnel around him. Utah wouldn't be bringing in a defensive sieve in Flagg, but they'll obviously need to surround him with a defense that's not the worst in the NBA if they want to be serious about title contention.
They have the timeline to figure out who should be around and who shouldn't, but if they get Flagg, they know from the get-go that they can't mess this up.