Subscribe
Follow Us
The Golden State Warriors have been mired in a nightmare situation with all four of their All-Star players out of commission with injuries of their own. But in the midst of the walking hospital the defending champions have been for the past couple of weeks, two-way player Quinn Cook has found himself the opportunist of the havoc revolving Steve Kerr's lineups.
While the likes of Nick Young, Jordan Bell, and Kevon Looney have been given spot starts as the stars went down, Cook has been the one staple in the lineup, and one that could stick in the rotation come playoff time.
Cook was an outlier, the very last man in the roster after the Warriors secured Oregon's Chris Boucher as their first two-way signing. Yet the Duke product managed to endured two seasons of coming oh so close, but no cigar.
“I’ve never wanted to quit, as much as I was told no,” Cook told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “I never was going to give up on my dream. It was just more motivation for me. I just wanted to keep pushing.”
Cook was coming off a shining season as a senior at Duke, but his size at 6-foot-2 and inability to play the point guard position naturally rendered him undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft.
The Washington D.C. native had stints with the New Orleans Pelicans (nine games) and the Dallas Mavericks (five games), but neither resulted in him sticking around for long.
“I dominated summer league and then they signed [Rajon] Rondo, Darius Miller and then it was a numbers game. They released me,” Cook said.
Yet this opportunity is as golden as the team's logo, with Kerr putting all of his trust in his ability to carry the scoring load and giving him ample minutes (averaging 37 minutes per game in his last five) to prove that he can be a floor general when need be.
Article Continues Below
While the likes of Young and second-year guard/forward Patrick McCaw fail to show consistency, the Warriors will need a point guard with Stephen Curry expected to miss part or even the entire first round of the playoffs.
Cook has provided the most consistent ability to shoot, run the floor, as well as the most cohesiveness with this second unit, which could translate into a key support role come playoff time.
Even during his time with G League affiliate Santa Cruz Warriors, Cook was averaging a second-best 25.3 points and 8.1 assists in 29 games this season, coming off leading the league in scoring during the 2016-17 campaign as a member of the Canton Charge.
“My coaches and teammates let me know, ‘We know what you can do. We brought you here for a reason. We need you to be this guy,’ ” Cook said. “They were giving me confidence every single day. Coach Kerr would get mad at me when I didn’t shoot. Draymond [Green], Kevin [Durant], all those guys would get mad at me when I didn’t shoot. To have guys like that give you confidence, you could do nothing but get better. I just was lucky to have those guys believe in me.”
Perhaps the greatest vote of confidence comes from Curry himself, who once told him he couldn't care less if he went 1-for-25 as long as he kept shooting the ball.
“He’s on this team for a reason and he has an amazing opportunity to really show what he was about in helping a team accomplish a goal,” Curry said. “To not be passive when he is out there on the court. Not be anybody else. Be aggressive. Be a scorer. Be a playmaker and do what they brought him here for.”
