The 2025 NBA Draft has come and gone and with Cooper Flagg now officially a member of the Dallas Mavericks, fans inside and outside of Texas will be eagerly awaiting the new year to see if the lottery gods have truly delivered a ready-made star to replace the outgoing Luka Doncic right into the Mavericks’ hands.
Fortunately for NBA 2K fans, there’s no need to wait. The community has a diligent group of custom draft class crafters ready to provide first looks at tomorrow’s players in today’s game. To preview Flagg’s prospects we first ran a five-season simulation on the popular Jackmove draft class to see the class develop. Then to check for consensus, we gave four other top draft class downloads a crack at simulating Flagg and company’s rookie year to see if anyone could steal even one Rookie of the Year trophy.
The Rookie Campaign
After a year of simulation to get to Flagg’s draft, it was the Portland Trail Blazers who won the lottery to get the draft rights to select the undisputed top projection in Flagg, and their virtual fans will be very happy that they did. While Flagg arriving as an 83 is not the kind of unstoppable force to drag a team from lottery-toppers to contenders overnight, adding him to the roster was already enough to turn them into a playoff side.
The Trail Blazers made their way to the top play-in game and, in a bit of a future trend, picked up the win to claim the #7 seed. While things ended there for Portland, they did take two games off the #2 seed Timberwolves for a strong turnaround for the franchise. Unsurprisingly, Flagg was a key part of the revival as he cruised to his first Rookie of the Year win in our simulation runs, picking up the title of 2-Way 3-Level Shot Creator, a multi-tool weapon to build around.
Cooper Flagg The All-Pro
With his team promptly restored to relevance, Flagg entered his second year ready to grow and prove that he was more than just a good rookie, but a good player full-stop. On the team’ side of things ‘s end, the Blazers were not quite ready for their big jump just yet. Once again they were in the play-in, once again they won, and once again they bowed out at the hands of the #2 seed in a loaded Western Conference.
Individually, things were already on the move. Deciding that he liked the way his name looked on the end-of-season teams and no longer eligible for the one he made the last time out, Flagg only became an All-Pro in just his second season as a pro, snagging the final spot on the 1st Team. As the only second-year pro on either team things were already trending well for Portland making the right call.
The Demigod League MVP
If a third season playing in the play-in and crashing out to a talented #2-seed gave the Trailblazers’ in-game GM any pause for concern, it was likely lessened by Flagg progressing to the label of Demigod, and finishing second to only Victor Wembanyama as the most popular selection to the league’s 1st Team All-NBA Squad. Any worries at all would have been put properly to bed just a season later.
In year four, Flagg had progressed to the point that even the “Demi” felt maybe a bit of an undersell. Now 99-rated at 23 years old and in possession of a fresh 3-year $150 million contract, Flagg showed that he was worth every penny. The young star cruised to his first NBA League MVP while leading the Trailblazers to the top seed of the mighty West.
After polishing off his real-world destination in the first round in five and a tense seven-game series with Memphis, it was a six-game Conference Final loss to the Timberwolves, who themselves dominated the Final, that ended Flagg and company’s first serious run at a title. While the team slightly dropped down the standings in the final year of our simulation, sitting on a two-time League MVP with a 99-rating they would be quite well situated for the years ahead.
Can Anyone Challenge Flagg For Rookie Of The Year In Any Class?
The short answer is no, not according to our 2K simulations. Running tests using JotaKelmer, young hampton, Richie2K YT and bokeyBRETT’s 2025 classes, the rest of the field got four more chances at a rookie campaign to knock Flagg off his perch. While the visual representations of Flagg may have varied in their generosity to the top pick, the skills clearly didn’t waver as the former Dukie won all four, to go five-for-five in capturing Rookie of the Year honors in our 2K sims.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the other rookie contenders. If you’re a fan of the Spurs or Jazz you should be excited as both Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey excelled across the different simulations, making the All-Rookie Team all five times each. Things were particularly rosy if you’re a San Antonio fan, as the long-term sim also saw the Wemby core finally develop into a serious title threat as the big man won multiple MVPs of his own.
The 2K Verdict
It’s pretty clear that the early returns on 2K’s assessment of the incoming rookie class points to everyone being right that Flagg was the no-doubt way to go. Now, it’s worth remembering this is both just a video game sim and that each of these draft classes is built around the same idea that all the draft experts have put out that this is the kid with the most potential and most tools right now.
That said, if you’re a fan of the Dallas Mavericks still morning the loss of the city’s adopted sun to the hated Lakers then there’s at least a bit of a reason to smile thinking about what’s ahead. If Flagg can live up to the expectations of not just draft and NBA experts, but also the 2K modding community, then there’s every chance that the next NBA Final game played in Dallas may not be quite as far away as it no-doubt seemed following the news of Doncic’s departure.
Do you agree with the results that 2K has put forward and believe that Flagg will live up to the hype and more, or do you foresee a surprise challenge for Rookie of the Year and better long term prospects from one of the other top selections?
