Cooper Flagg is just over a month into his debut NBA season, but Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd sees a player wise beyond his years, one he is entrusting with more responsibilities as games go on, and it’s allowing Flagg to flourish.

Flagg took his game to a new level over the weekend, on Friday becoming the first 18-year-old to dish out 11 assists in game and on Saturday becoming the youngest player to score 35 or more points in a game. The latter performance, a 35-point, eight-rebound effort, led Dallas to its sixth win of the season, a 114-110 victory over the Clippers, and had Coach Kidd singing his young player’s praises afterward.

“He’s only 18 years old, but he seems like he’s been in this league before,” Jason said. “He did it all tonight. He had the ball. You can call it point guard or whatever, but he ran the offense for us. He drove the ball. The ball touched the paint. He got to the rim, got to the free throw line, stepped up and made free throws for us late. Just his composure on both ends [was impressive]. He competes at a very high level. You saw that tonight, but you saw that last night, too.”

The only other 18-year-old to put up 35 points in a NBA game was LeBron James in his 2003 rookie season. Flagg’s previous high watermark was a 29-point outing in a win over New Orleans last week. Flagg is finding his way in his NBA freshman season and as the Mavs wait on the return of Kyrie Irving and work Anthony Davis back into the lineup, they clearly are going as Cooper goes early in the 2025-26 season. After Saturday’s win, Dallas, though 6-15 overall, is 4-2 in games Flagg scores at least 20 points.

After his banner night on Saturday, Flagg credited Coach Kidd and his teammates for encouraging to take control of the game.

“Being aggressive right now is obviously right for me, and that’s what Coach has stressed to me,” said Flagg, who also had eight rebounds and two assists in 38 minutes. “I’ve got to be aggressive, and we’ll live with some of the mistakes, but you just have to be aggressive and trust all the work. My teammates are extremely confident in me, and I feel that. And when they’re confident in me, it enables me to just be free up there.”

Watch Flagg, Klay Thompson and Coach Kidd talk about the young star’s big night below.