Cooper Flagg Cleared to Play Monday After Shoulder Scare

The collective blood pressure of Dallas Mavericks fans can finally return to normal. According to Underdog NBA, Cooper Flagg is officially available to play on Monday after dealing with a shoulder injury.

For a minute there, things were looking grim. Flagg took a hard foul against the Indiana Pacers, went to the locker room rubbing his shoulder, and ended up missing the home opener with a mild left sprain. Missing your home opener because you got hammered on a drive is the kind of welcome-to-the-league moment that usually requires a veteran buying you an expensive steak, but Flagg is apparently just healing on fast-forward.

"Underdog NBA tweeted: 'Cooper Flagg (shoulder) available to play Monday.'"

The Mavericks desperately need him on the floor. We are talking about a guy who already became the first teenager in NBA history to drop a 50-piece, hanging 51 points on 63 percent shooting. You do not just replace that kind of production with a guy off the end of the bench who is mostly there to wave a towel and hand out Gatorade.

This is also a massive sigh of relief for fantasy managers and anyone looking at Monday's prop markets. Flagg has had a slightly bumpy medical record lately, missing eight games last season with a midfoot sprain and dealing with some minor ankle tweaks. When a generational talent goes down clutching his shoulder, the betting lines freeze and fantasy group chats turn into grief counseling sessions.

Now that the MRI confirmed it was just a mild sprain, Flagg is ready to roll. Expect him to slot right back into his usual heavy minutes on Monday, assuming the Mavericks do not wrap him in bubble wrap during the pregame shootaround.