"I would stay": 13-year NBA vet offers blunt take on why Cooper Flagg should return to Duke next season

Cooper Flagg is the runaway favorite for the 2025 National Player of the Year Award. The Duke superstar has been as great as advertised and is currently leading Duke to a national championship push.

Before the season began, it was expected that Flagg would go one-and-done, but lately, the Duke Blue Devils star has cast doubt over declaring for the 2025 NBA draft. Hence, there's a chance that he'll be back for his sophomore year.

NCAA basketball analyst and 13-year NBA vet Quentin Richardson believes that Flagg should run it back with the Blue Devils. When asked if Cooper Flagg could be in a Duke uniform next year, Richardson said on College GameDay,

"I'll be interested. Because if I'm Cooper Flagg, I'm not sure I want to go to the Washington Wizards. So, I mean, there's that waiting for him, and that is purgatory."

He added:

"I would stay. You would with the landscape, what it is now, and the money he can make, knowing that I'm looking at going to Washington, I might.

"I mean, I would, you know, obviously have to consult with my family and my team, and see, I'll check all of those things out. But I'm not sure that would be the worst thing for him."

Cooper Flagg is having a historically great freshman season with the Blue Devils. With just one game left in the regular season, he's leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game.

Such an achievement is almost unheard of in such a collegiate basketball powerhouse, and it looks like he's locked up the National Player of the Year Award. Next up for Cooper Flagg is to somehow lead the Blue Devils to their first national championship since 2015.

However, his performance for the rest of the season would seemingly mean little for his draft stock. Flagg is the consensus No. 1 pick in this year's draft and one of the best prospects in recent memory.

How much could Cooper Flagg make if he declared for 2025 draft?

The Atlanta Hawks selected Zaccharie Risacher with the first pick of the 2024 NBA draft. Risacher signed a rookie deal that'll see him make $12,569,040 in his first year as a pro. That's just part of the four-year, $57,027,437 deal he signed upon joining the Hawks.

The rookie scale deal increases every season so Flagg could earn over $12,569,040 in his first year in the NBA if he is selected first. That is a lot of money to consider skipping on in order to run it back with the Duke Blue Devils.

Furthermore, anything can happen between this year and the next. Hence, it's hard to imagine Flagg's advisors telling him to play one more year of collegiate hoops rather than enter the league.

The Blue Devils are a high-caliber program with many wealthy alumni. However, it'll take a lot for them to source around $13 million to keep their star asset on campus.

Flagg is likely playing his last set of games for the Blue Devils, and he'll be eager to close out his college hoops career with a national championship.