Ranking All 13 Potential Cooper Flagg NBA Draft Lottery Landing Spots

Monday’s 2025 Draft Lottery will alter the league landscape in several ways, namely determining Cooper Flagg’s landing spot. Duke’s 6-foot-9 freshman phenom will almost certainly be the first pick of the 2025 draft, regardless of what team lands the top pick. Teams don’t often pass on franchise-altering prospects like Flagg.

Ordering Flagg’s potential future teams is largely a matter of preference. This list contains plenty of personal bias, but I attempted to base the rankings on a few factors. For this list, we’ll consider Flagg’s practical basketball fit with the roster, their organizational competency, how much fun we’d have watching him there and how the pick would shift the NBA’s ecosystem. 

Let’s rank all 13 (San Antonio has two lottery picks) possible Cooper Flagg landing spots before the lottery unveils the sweepstakes’ winner, with each team’s odds of landing the top pick listed beside.

12. Toronto Raptors (7.5%)

After trading for Brandon Ingram at the deadline, adding Flagg would form a classic Raptors logjam on the wing. He’d find a way to thrive in Toronto, but a roster build around wings and forwards who are best with the basketball in their hands doesn’t help maximize Flagg’s gifts and talents.

11. Dallas Mavericks (1.8%)

It would feel blasphemous for the Dallas Mavericks to luck into another franchise-changing star after trading Luka Doncic. Depending on how sharp Flagg’s development curve ends up, he could form a trio worthy of Western Conference contention with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving

10. San Antonio Spurs (8.2%)

The Spurs landing Flagg to pair with Victor Wembanayma would damage the health of the league more than any other landing spot. Still, it’s impossible not to fawn over the idea of Flagg and Wembanyama decimating teams on both ends of the court, forming an unstoppable defensive backline.

9. Chicago Bulls (1.7%)

Flagg would bring Chicago its first drafted mega star in over a decade and would likely help vault the franchise out of mediocrity. The Bulls’ current regime hasn’t earned any trust that they’d build wisely around Flagg, but the promise of him lighting Chicago alongside Matas Buzelis is intriguing.

8. Sacramento Kings (0.8%)

No team in the NBA needs a full-blown reset as desperately as Sacramento. If the lottery gods miraculously gift them the top pick, the Kings can shift their approach to bolstering their current roster around Flagg or blowing it up entirely. Flagg would help the Kings maintain relevancy in a way they haven’t been able to for decades.

7. Philadelphia 76ers (10.5%)

Apart from any 76ers-related curses, Flagg in Philadelphia undeniably presents an exciting basketball fit. As they move out of the Joel Embiid era, the Sixers would pair Flagg with two young star guards, Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. Both would thrive playing off of Flagg in pick-and-roll and off-ball attacking situations.

6. Utah Jazz (14%)

Utah has drifted through the last few seasons rudderless, racking up tons of prospects and even more losses. It’s hard to know who the Jazz value most of their group of prospects, but Flagg would immediately return the squad to Western Conference relevance. A creative offensive mind like Will Hardy would likely extract much of Flagg’s potential.

5. New Orleans Pelicans (12.5%)

The idea of a Cooper Flagg and Zion Williamson connecting on half-court lobs all but guaranteed New Orleans a high ranking on this list. New Orleans could trade Williamson this offseason, but building around Williamson and Flagg, two imposing athletes with complementary skillsets, would be tantalizing.

New Orleans couldn’t stay healthy at all this season, but with Flagg on the roster, even slightly more fortunate injury luck could help them return to the playoffs. If Williamson can’t shake the injury bug, the Pelicans can retool around promising players like Flagg, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Yves Missi.

4. Charlotte Hornets (14%)

Despite their continual existence among the NBA’s bottom feeders, the Hornets have quite a bit of exciting talent to pair with Flagg. His fit with LaMelo Ball would be sublime, providing Ball an elite play-finisher and eventual primary scorer to play with alongside plenty of defensive help. Pairing an elite slasher like Flagg with shooters like Ball and Brandon Miller makes sense.

Critically, landing the top pick in 2025 would present the Hornets with much-needed options. They could build around the aforementioned Ball and Miller, hoping to construct the league’s next great young trio. Charlotte could ship Ball (or Miller) away and reset with Flagg as the franchise’s centerpiece. Hopefully, we’ll see Flagg keep a clean bill of health, unlike most of Charlotte’s most promising players.

3. Washington Wizards (14%)

Washington leaned into their youth and inexperience more explicitly than most organizations would this season. Will Dawkins and Brian Keefe clearly understand their team’s timeline and empowered their young players throughout the season. As a result, players like Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn all showed promise in their first and second seasons.

Flagg would add a much-needed potential primary creator for the Wizards for their young building blocks to orbit around. He’d help add another contender to the Eastern Conference sooner rather than later, forming arguably the league’s most promising young core of prospects for an iconic NBA brand.

2. Brooklyn Nets (9.0%)

As rebuilding scenarios go, the Nets find themselves in a favorable spot. Brooklyn is an effective blank slate in a coveted market with a promising young head coach. Aside from Cam Thomas, there aren’t many obvious building blocks on this roster (assuming the Nets retain Thomas) 

Flagg would immediately step into a primary role for Brooklyn. No other team can offer him as much usage to absorb on both ends of the floor. Jordi Fernandez and his bunch of misfit toys, similar to our top team, somewhat exceeded expectations with their competitive play this season. Brooklyn’s ecosystem seems to be trending upwards and there isn’t a better keystone prospect than Flagg to build around.

1. Portland Trail Blazers (3.7%)

A perfect storm of factors and circumstances helps Portland land atop this list. Portland has accumulated plenty of young talent over the years, but lacks a player with the upside to become the best player on an elite team. Flagg would mesh with Portland’s young, scrappy defense, which helped the team exceed expectations in 2025.

Landing Flagg would reward Portland’s commitment to winning. Many expected the Blazers to bottom out this season, but they mustered a legitimate push for the play-in. Flagg would vault Portland’s promising young pieces and complementary players. He, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Scoot Henderson pushing the pace would be appointment television.