Jeff Teague thinks Dylan Harper's postseason run made people forget Cooper Flagg

Jeff Teague thinks Dylan Harper’s postseason run made people forget Cooper Flagg originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Despite the 2025 NBA Draft class being called one of the worst in recent history, it still produced some star players. The biggest examples of this are the top two, which are Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg and San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper.

They were both excellent this season alongside fellow rookies VJ Edgecombe and Kon Knueppel. Amidst all of their solid rookie campaigns, Flagg was the Rookie of the Year. However, it seems the tide has turned, and more people respect Harper now.

Dylan Harper is garnering more respect than Cooper Flagg lately

While Flagg and Knueppel were the biggest names during the regular season, Harper got the last laugh with his postseason performance.

The two Rookie of the Year frontrunners failed to make the Playoffs, so more people got to see Harper stand out for the Spurs. He was arguably their second-best player behind Victor Wembanyama, which is a special achievement, considering the Spurs made the NBA Finals.

MORE: How Dylan Harper’s rise to stardom could make things difficult for the Spurs

This has led to a lot of people, like Jeff Teague, speaking about Harper like he is the superstar of his class. Of course, other players will argue against that, and chief among them is the Rookie of the Year himself, Cooper Flagg.

“Like nobody remembers Cooper Flagg’s rookie year, like right now. With Dylan Harper playing, they like ‘He’s the best rookie in the league; he had 300 points or something; he had the most from a rookie ever.’ He played so well that he got an All-Star, a max player. He got the world calling this guy sad,” Teague said on his Club 520 podcast.

Both players will have long careers in the NBA. They are on the right trajectory, which will be interesting to look at moving forward because they have the talent to back up all the hype they have built up.

It will be interesting to see which one will end up being the better player. In the meantime, the NBA and its fans will enjoy the quality of basketball from the young players.

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