Cooper Flagg Is Easily The Most Obvious Future Celtic Of All Time

Ethan Miller. Getty Images.

Overall, I'd say Cooper Flagg's Vegas Summer League debut was a smashing success for a few reasons. For starters, he looked every bit the part of a franchise savior, resulting in the Mavs officially shutting Flagg down for the summer after his breakout Game 2 the other day

This should have Mavs fans very excited, because getting shut down early at Vegas Summer League is honestly the goal of any big time prospect or even a Year 2 guy. It was clear that Cooper showed enough, so there's no point in risking any potential injury. Get in, have some moments, and get out, which is exactly what Flagg did. Much like Wemby his Game 2 performance was much better than his debut, and he'll have plenty of time in the preseason to get ramped up and ready for real NBA games.

That's the good news for Mavs fans. The bad news is I'm not sure we've seen a more obviouys future Celtic in the history of the NBA outside of Gordon Hayward the second the Celts hired Brad Stevens. It didn't matter that Hayward was under contract with the Jazz at the time, evey single person with a brain knew the first chance he could get to join forces with his favorite coach, he would.

How'd that go?

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

OK, so the actual basketball part didn't work out how we all hoped for, but the fact is the move happened just like we all predicted it would years earlier when Brad was hired back in 2013.

Well folks, it's pretty obvious we have another situation on our hands, this time with Maine native and lifelong Celtics fan Cooper Flagg. 

What does he do now that he's shut down for the summer? Maybe head home? Maybe head back to Dallas to get some work in? No, none of those things. Instead, he did exactly what the most obvious future Celtic would do. He snuck in to watch his favorite team play

Were the Mavs playing yesterday? Nope. Not in either gym. This was Cooper basically being like the rest of us, and frankly, I've never been more proud. Cooper Flagg is a sicko who will do anything to watch the Summer Celts, just like us normal idiots

I know this might trigger some Mavs fans given what happened this past year and the fact that Cooper is slated to be the next savior of their franchise, but I'm afraid the writing has been on the wall for quite some time now

This is what we call, playing the long game. He'll play through his rookie deal and then sign his rookie max extension with Dallas. Nobody of his talent plays on the qualifying offer. But once we get to around year 3 or 4 of that rookie extension? It's time for the plan to come together.

I mean, it could not be more obvious. By the time we get to that part of Cooper's career, the Celts books will be clean

The Jays will be in their early-mid 30s, for all we know, young prospects like AJ Dybantsa or Cam Boozer might be on the roster if 2025-26 goes to plan, and again Cooper Flagg clearly cannot wait to become a Celtic. It all just makes too much sense. They'll have the money, they'll have the positional need, the stars are already aligning. It's not like this would be the first time Nico Harrison traded a generational talent who was the face of the franchise, and it's certainly not the first time the NBA did something shady to help one of their biggest and most successful franchises. Either by trade or through free agency, this feels inevitable.

All I'm saying is put in a pin in all of this, the same way we did back in 2013 with Brad Stevens/Gordon Hayward. At the time, it sounded crazy that an All Star and franchise player would leave, but the connection to Brad proved to be the winning ticket. Well, how about a kid from Maine who probably spent his whole life dreaming of playing for the Celtics and would have a chance to team up with his favorite player? Lock it in, I'm afraid.

2031-32 cannot get here soon enough.